


Spidey-Sitting

by Nanerich



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Michelle Jones Is a Good Bro, Mostly Fluff, Ned Leeds is a Good Bro, Other, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Tony Stark, Some Whump, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, the avengers babysitting spidey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-29
Updated: 2019-06-29
Packaged: 2020-05-29 17:14:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 32,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19404637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nanerich/pseuds/Nanerich
Summary: May is out of town for the week and Peter stays with the Avengers.





	1. Sunday

“Are you sure, you have everything you need?”  
“Yes, Aunt May”, Peter said, “better make sure that you have everything you need! If I forget anything, I can swing by. Literally”, he added with a grin.  
“Don’t remind me! But yes, I have all I need for the next week.”  
For the next 7 days May was to be in Chicago for a bunch of seminars, her firm held annually. For the past few years she always managed to get out of having to partake, because she couldn't leave Pe-ter alone. Now that the boy was 16, her boss demanded she be there, “after all the boy is old enough to take care of himself.“  
May didn't agree at all, especially since the boy took to patrolling and swinging through town. She needed to know, someone would look after him, made sure he didn't skip school and was there if something happened.  
Thankfully there were Mr. Stark and the Avengers. Well, mostly Mr. Stark. She didn't exactly trust most of the superheroes, with all the assassins and war criminals... But Stark has looked out for Peter for a while now, and even though he didn't say it, she knew he was more to him than a mentor.  
And although Peter himself was very convinced that he didn't need a babysitter, he was over the moon to spend the week with the Avengers.  
The doorbell rang, and Peter buzzed Happy in.   
“Hello Parkers. Are you ready to head out?”   
“Hello Harold, almost, one moment.” May quickly checked all the rooms for closed windows and unplugged electronics.  
“Wait, your name is Harold?”, she heard her nephew from the other room. She smiled at his in-credulous tone.   
“Yes, Peter.” Happy didn't sound too impressed.   
Before Peter could ask any more questions, she headed for the door. “Alright, everything ready! Let's go!  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
The car ride to the airport was mostly filled with May reminding Peter of the rules. “And don't think, just because you're staying with the Avengers, you get to do a bunch of extra dangerous missions!”   
“Of course not, Aunt May!”   
“And no matter, what missions, plans or ideas they have, you are first and foremost a student!”   
“I know, May.”  
Happy had to bite back a grin. He totally understood why May was so worried. The Avengers weren't exactly known to be a harmonic group of people; after all Tony was still unravelling some of the Sokovia-Accords mess.  
“May, don't worry. I'll be fine! I have stayed over at the Avenger's before, remember?”   
“Yes, you're right.”   
Happy decided it was best not to tell her, how Peter almost blew up the lab that time. He saw in the review mirror, how Peter was staring at him, thinking of the same incident, and, with a wink, he let him know that the secret was safe.  
“Ok, lastly this is a list with your allergies, contact details for school and everything else Mr. Stark should know about. Harold, please make sure he receives it.”, she added with a side-eye to Peter.  
“Of course.” As mature as he was for his age, he was still a teenager and as forgetful as they come.  
The goodbye at the airport was quite emotional. As Happy gathered, the two of them were never apart for more than 4 days, when Peter was on a school fieldtrip. The week would be hard on both of them.  
“Call me, when you land, ok?”   
“Of course, Petey. Every evening if I have to.”   
“I think the new 'baby-monitor-program' Mr. Stark has installed actually sends regular updates straight to your phone.”   
May laughed. “Wow, that man really thinks of everything. Alright, I have to get through security now. Thank you again, Harold, for dropping me of!” She shook his hand.   
“No bother at all, May. I hope you have a good flight and an interesting week ahead of you!”  
“Thanks. And Pete”, she gave the boy a big hug, “I love you so much!”   
The boy held on tightly. “I love you, too! Be safe, ok?”   
“You too.” She kissed him on his forehead and said: “see you next week!”, before turning around and disappearing in the mass of people.  
“Ready to head to the mansion?”   
Happy put his hand on Peters shoulder. It clearly took the boy a lot not to cry. Happy made a mental note, to get everyone together for dinner; being with his heroes and friends would lift his spirits and get that grin back on his face.   
“Sure.”  
The car ride was surprisingly quiet. Usually Peter talked at about 70 mph and told Happy what hap-pened at school, what he had for lunch, how Flash got detention, and so much more. Although that was always too much for Happy, today he actually missed it.   
“Hey, buddy, you want to talk about it?”   
“Not really, no.”  
Well, maybe a distraction would work. “What are you and Tony actually working on at the moment? Was it Mark 37 or 54?”   
“28.”   
“And what are you fixing on that one?”   
Peter just shrugged. Silence.  
“So, Peter, did Tony tell you, what happened yesterday?”   
He shook his head. Well, at least a reaction.   
“Loki turned himself into a snake and pestered Thor, until he tied the snake around Mjölnir. Loki has managed to turn back, but he is still stuck under the hammer and has been sitting in the hallway since then.”  
That story got him a chuckle.  
Happy smiled. “Well, around 9am today, Loki started singing, in the hope, someone will help get him free. When I left to get you, he had gotten through the soundtracks of 'The greatest Showman', 'Annie' and was about halfway through 'Hamilton'. Him singing all the parts to 'My shot' or 'The Schuyler Sisters' was especially entertaining.”   
The chuckle developed into a full giggle.  
“What Loki hasn't realized yet, is that he actually has a pretty decent voice, and everyone is really enjoying his protest.”   
Peter was laughing wholeheartedly. “I hope he is still singing, I really want to see that!”   
“Don't worry, Tony has FRIDAY filming everything. Maybe we'll put some of it on YouTube.”  
The rest of the drive was filled with giggles and happiness. Happy was telling Peter all the funny Avenger stories, he could think off and his moodiness turned more and more into joy.  
Shortly after they arrived at the mansion. Before they got out if the car, Happy turned to Peter. “I'm really sorry, but I have to get to the offices right away and Tony is still in a meeting. Or at least he should be. Though I guess, after last time, he's scared enough of Pepper not to skip one again.”   
Peter's eyes widened. “Why? What happened?”  
Happy checked his watch. “Ok, last story. You know that Pepper threatens him regularly about not attending meetings, right?”   
The kid nodded.   
“Well, I guess Tony never really took the threats too seriously. Until last time, when she got FRIDAY to lock him out of the lab for 3 days.”   
“No way!”   
“Oh yes. Ever since he hasn't thought of skipping once.”   
If Happy deciphered the look on Peter's face correctly, it seemed like he had a new favourite super-hero.

“Ok, enough chitchats. Take your stuff to your room, and until Tony gets out of the meeting you can go entertain Loki. Or be entertained by him; dealer's choice.”   
“Alright, thanks Happy!”   
He seemed a lot happier then when he got in the car. You still got it, Happy! he thought to himself. Before Peter disappeared through the doors, Happy called after him one more time: “Hey, Pete? No one needs to know that I just told you everyone's secrets, right?”   
“You got it, Happy!”, Peter called back with a wink, before he vanished in the building.   
“Same goes for you, FRIDAY.”   
“Of course, Mr. Hogan.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Sweet Caroline, OH, OH, OH! Good times never felt so good. SO GOOD!”  
He had been sitting here for 18 hours now. And, after four hours of musicals didn't accomplish any-thing, Loki decided to go for the worst earworms he could think of. He was the god of mischief for crying out loud! If he couldn't annoy the avengers into freeing him, then who could?  
“Sweet Caroline”   
“OH, OH, OH!”   
Surprised, Loki turned around, well, as far as he could, with Mjölnir pressing him against the floor.  
“Don't stop, I love this song!” Peter came up, dropped next to him on the floor and greeted him with a big smile.   
“Wonderful to see you, Peter!”   
“You too, Loki.”  
“So, what happened?”   
Loki was pretty sure, Peter already knew, but answered nonetheless. “Long story short: my dear brother can't take a joke.”   
Peter chuckled. “How long has he let you sit out here?”   
“About 18 hours now.”   
“WHAT? But that is so mean!”   
Loki smiled. “I know, right?”   
“Did they at least get you something to eat?” The kid was totally enraged.   
“Wanda brought me a sandwich earlier today.”   
“Good.”   
Suddenly the boy's face lit up. “I have an idea to get you out of here. But it'll cost you”, he added with a grin.   
Loki grinned back. “Shoot.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Thor was getting a bit worried. Loki stopped singing about half an hour ago. Hopefully nothing had happened... But he couldn't give in and check on him. But what if something had actually happened to his little brother?  
He was suddenly ripped out of his thoughts by a knock on the door.   
“Hi Thor!”   
“Man of spiders!” He embraced the boy. “It is wonderful to see you.”   
“You too, Thor.”  
He absolutely adored the child and unofficially adopted him as sort of a little brother. He wouldn't dare to take the child under his care as if he were his own, out of respect to Stark, but he did care for him deeply.  
“What brings you to my chambers?”   
“Actually, I need to ask a favour.”   
“Anything for my favourite Midgardian!”   
“Thanks, Thor.” The boy's ears turned bright red, apparently, he seemed to deeply appreciate the sentiment.  
“So, Loki and I planned to duel each other – table tennis, not swords or stuff. And I was really look-ing forward to it. Like a lot.”   
Oh, those puppy eyes...   
“And you would like me to set my brother free.”   
“He promised not to stab or poison or do anything else like that to you while I'm here!”   
Thor was a literal god, and as little as he trusted Loki, not even he could resist those big, brown eyes.  
“On one condition. I get to play, too!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
How much longer could this meeting possibly take? It took all of Tony's strength, not to let the annoy-ance and boredom show, or to sigh out loud. If it wasn't for Pepper... He vividly remembered their discussion this morning.  
“Why do I even have to go, you're the CEO after all, Pep!”   
“And you are still the face of the company. When talking to investors or shareholders it is especially important, because you, honey, represent all of SI.”, she said, while fixing his collar.   
Oh, pet names were never a good sign.  
“Promise me, you'll be a good boy? I might make it worth your while”, she grinned, giving him a long kiss, before walking back into her office.   
“I'll hold you to it!”, he called after her.  
He also didn't quite get, why the meeting had to be today. First of all, who held a meeting on a Sun-day? Not that he was very religious (despite being friends with two actual gods...) but everyone de-served a weekend. Also, he would have really liked to pick up Peter himself and take Aunt Hottie to the airport. Mental note: don't call her Aunt Hottie in front of Peter or Pepper! About an hour ago, Happy quickly poked his head through the door, and signaled that everything went well. While that was good news, he would have liked to greet him by now.  
About 20 minutes ago he actively stopped listening. FRIDAY was recording everything, so if some-thing important was said, she could tell him. Tony tried to remember the speaker's name. Hollister? Hollander? It must be something like that.  
“Thank you very much for your attention!”   
The applause for Mr. whatever his name brought Tony back into the present.   
“Thank you very much”, Tony said standing up, walking over to the speaker and shook his hand. “That was very interesting, you have given me a lot to think about – and I'm sure the rest of these love-ly people as well.”  
Tony felt like back in high school, when giving book reports about books he didn't read. But – like back then – it worked like a charm.   
“Thank you, Mr. Stark.”   
“Please, call me Tony!”   
“Well, thank you Tony.”  
One after the other left the conference room. As he turned around, he saw Pepper standing by the door, greeting everyone, being her charming self. If she weren't here, he would have probably dashed for the door by now, looking for the Spiderling, but it was less duty than his emotions that let him line up and be the last to formally shake her hand.  
“Mr. Stark, thank you so very much for attending”, she remarked with a grin.   
“Well, Ms. Potts”, he answered, “ as a very wise woman once said, I am after all the face of the com-pany.”   
“And that was all the persuasion you needed to attend?”, she scoffed.   
Tony put his arms round her waist. “She is a very persuasive woman. And frankly, quite scary.”   
She wrapped her arms around Tony and let him pull her close. “She does sound very amazing.”   
“She is the best. You two should meet sometime!”   
“Alright”, she grinned before giving him a kiss. “Now off you go. That Spiderboy is in the gaming room with the Asgardians.”  
He heard them, long before he got even close. Loud shouting and more or less harmful threats were made and, by the sound of it, a few others must have joined in the meantime. Tony cautiously opened the door. And witnessed absolute mayhem. They didn't just play table tennis; everybody was using their powers to the max.  
Instead of a paddle, Thor used his hammer and Steve his shield. Loki multiplied, appeared and disappeared all over the room. Wanda was using her magic thingy to direct the ball. Scott shrunk down and grew up, never really letting go of the ball. And Peter webbed and swung through the room. They didn't even use the table anymore. Tony wasn't sure what exactly the goal was. From the looks of it apparently 'don't die'.  
No one noticed him entering the room, he stood by the door, just watching and waiting for someone to either break the interior or his bones.  
“WATCH OUT!“   
The warning came too late, and first a ball hit him in the head, before a screaming teenager crashed into him.   
“Oh fuck!“   
“Language!“  
“Mr. Stark, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there! Oh my God, I am so sorry, are you alright?“   
“Hi Pete. It's good to see you, too! But you can get off me now.“   
“Oh yeah, sorry. It's good to see you, too, Mr. Stark.“ The boy held his hand out and helped Tony get back on his feet.   
“How often do I have to tell you to call me Tony?“   
“Sorry, Mr. St... Tony.“  
“Oof, that's going to leave a mark.” Tony rubbed his forehead.   
“I really am so sorry!”   
“Oh, you're gonna be sorry, alright...”  
“Is it just me or did that just sound like a threat?”, Scott pointed out.   
”No, it definitively isn't just you”, Steve answered, looking like he had Civil War flashbacks.  
“Mr. Stark, ehm I mean Tony, I really am sorry. I didn't see you there, and then everything went so fast... I just couldn't stop...” The boy slowly backed away from Tony; it looked to him like he was try-ing to hide behind Thor.   
Tony grinned broadly. “You brought this on yourself, kid. FRIDAY? Assemble!” The Ironmansuit started to piece itself together.  
“Oh, it's on!”, Steve shouted, propping up his shield.   
“Bring it on, tinman!” With the blink of an eye, Loki multiplied into 6 copies of him and Scott en-larged the Ping-Pong ball to the size of a volleyball.   
“Boss, I would highly advise to move this to the training room.”   
“Good point, FRI”, Tony answered, thinking of the furniture.  
“Last one there has to do the dishes tonight!”, Wanda yelled, before flying off.   
Peter followed suit, swinging behind. It didn't take long for the game to start again. Tony still didn't get, what exactly they were supposed to be doing, but it was a good training session he thought. All of them using their powers to such an extent made for a good real-life fight simulation. And – admittedly – it was a lot of fun.  
Slowly but surely people started to team up. Scott and Steve found their rhythm, with Steve throwing Scott and his shield around, them becoming bigger and smaller, depending on who or what the target was. Wanda and Loki combined their magical powers and became scary good. Peter teamed up with Thor. Tony was only a little jealous, but was aware that since he initiated the threat, Thor was the only one who could really protect Peter.  
So, being left by himself, Tony blasted at everything that moved. He reprogrammed one of his suits as a training suit, meaning the blasts were comparable to a paintball gun: It still hurt, but wasn't all that dangerous.  
And over time it seemed that everyone started to team up against him. He tried his best, but finally ended up being webbed to the floor, with Mjölnir holding him in place.   
“That's really not fair, guys.”   
“Now you know, what it feels like, Stark!”, Loki laughed triumphantly; the rest of the group grinning along.  
“Alright, I surrender. Get me out of here.”   
A few moments later, everyone was back upstairs, sitting on the couches, panting hard.   
“You guys are a lot more fun to fight than The Sinister Six...”, Peter explained, hanging from the ceil-ing.  
“I'm hungry. Is it time for dinner, yet?”; Wanda asked.   
“Since when do any of you ask, instead of just helping yourself?” Tony was really surprised. Sure, every now and then they would all eat together, but that was rare. Mostly everyone just raided the kitchen whenever they wanted to.   
“Since Peter is staying here.”   
“Really?”, Peter beamed.   
“Of course,”, Steve nodded, “we have to celebrate having our favourite spider here!”  
“Not cool, Rogers.”   
“Natasha!”   
“Hey Pete! And Steve;”, she pointed at him, “you're on thin ice! Though I fully agree, you are my favourite spider as well.”   
“Aww, thanks!”   
She turned back around to Tony. “So, what do I hear about dinner? Because I could do with some food right about now.”  
Half an hour later everyone sat around the table. Tony had ordered Pizza, and enough to feed an army. Though with two gods, a super soldier and a teenager with a super metabolism, not too much would end up being left over.  
“Mr. Stark, I have an incoming call.” FRIDAY's voice interrupted the chatting.   
“From whom? Can't it wait till after dinner?”   
“It is May Parker.”   
“Answer it!”, Peter squealed.  
“Hello?” May's voice echoed through the speakers.   
“Hi Aunt May!”   
“Pete, so good to hear you! How is everything?”  
“All is well, how was your flight?” The kid couldn't sit still anymore, all the excitement made him quite jumpy.  
“Oh, it was alright. No turbulences and on time. I just read up on the seminars I get to attend. How is everything on your end?”  
“It's good, really! We did some training and now we're having pizza together.”  
“That sounds wonderful. Say hi to everyone from me!”  
“Hello May!”, everyone called back to her.  
“I'm on speaker, alright.” She laughed. “Sorry, I don't want to disturb your dinner.”   
“You're not disturbing at all, May”, Tony reassured her. “It is good to hear, you landed safe and soundly.”  
“Hello Tony. Thank you again for looking after Peter this week. I feel a lot better, knowing he is in good hands.”  
“The pleasure is all mine, May. You have quite the kid, there.” He winked at Peter, who looked like he could faint from excitement any moment.  
“Oh, I am aware”, she laughed. “I trust, Peter gave you all the documents you might need?”   
Peter's face turned bright red. “Yes, of course, May, I gave it to him right away!” He pleadingly looked at Tony, not to tell on him. The rest of the avengers could barely contain their laughter at the comical expression on his face.  
“Yes, May. I have everything I need for the next few days. Don't worry. We'll take good care of him.”  
Peter voiced a silent thank you to Tony, before turning his attention back to his aunt. “They really do!”  
“I am glad to hear that. Anyways, I should let you get back to your pizza, and I have some preparing to do for the seminar tomorrow and will try to get an early night. So, should you, Pete, you have that test tomorrow!”   
“It's just Spanish Aunt May, I'll do fine.”   
“I know you will. Let me know how it went, ok?”   
“Sure thing!”   
“Ok, then I wish you all a nice evening, and Petey, I love you!”   
“I love you, too!”   
“Bye everyone!”   
“Bye, May!”  
“Call ended.”   
“Thank you, FRIDAY.” The boy sounded almost choked up.   
Knowing their family history, Tony could understand that any time apart was burdened with bad memories and anxiety.   
“I'll get those documents right away, sorry I forgot about them.”   
Usually Tony would let him finish his meal, there was no rush. But the kid looked like he needed to be alone for a moment.   
“Sure thing. I'll keep your pizza warm.”   
“Thanks, Mr. Stark.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Why couldn't that stupid firm hold their conferences in New York? Why did they have to send Aunt May so far away? Even with Mr. Stark's Iron Legion it would take so long to get there, in case of any emergencies.  
No, Peter, you're not going to cry. May is fine, you are fine, everything is fine. That didn't help at all.  
You get to spend the entire week with the Avengers. May will call every evening and before you know it, she will be back in New York. That helped a little. He fished the papers out of his bag, took a deep breath and headed back out.  
They are your friends in there. Holy crap, you are besties with the Avengers! Iron Man is Aunt May's emergency contact! You have been through so much with them. You stole Cap's shield. You freaking went to space! You could handle the Vulture and Thanos, you can handle Aunt May being in Chicago for a few days. With that thought in mind, he entered the dining room with a smile.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
After a very exciting but tiring afternoon, everyone retired soon after dinner. Peter and Tony quickly discussed what would happen tomorrow, when he needed to be at school, when he needed to be picked up, and so on.  
“Alright then. Time for bed.”   
“Mr. Stark, it's only 9pm.”   
“It's Tony, and you heard your aunt. You have a test tomorrow.”   
“Alright.” Peter exhaled.   
“Sleep well, kid. I'll see you in the morning.”   
“Good night, Mr. … Tony.” With that, Peter turned and disappeared in his room.

Tony went into his apartment shortly after. Pepper was sitting on the couch, already in her Pjs.   
“What are you doing up here already?”, she asked, looking incredulously.   
It was true, he seldom came up before 11, mostly after midnight. He dropped down next to her.  
“Well, don't exactly want the kid to copy all my bad habits.” He put his head in her lap and she started to stroke his hair.   
“Wise move. Insight is the first step.”  
He closed his eyes for a moment. Not many things were as soothing as Pepper's hand in his hair. Un-less that one time, when her engagement ring got tangled up. He chuckled thinking of it.   
“What is so funny?”   
“Nothing. I really like you doing that though!” He opened his eyes and looked up at her.   
“Yeah, me too.”  
He sat back up and fished May's letter out of his pocket.   
“What's that?”   
“A love letter from my secret lover.”   
Pepper looked puzzled. “Wait, which one was she again? Susan from accounting?”   
Tony shook his head. “No, she is just a fling.”   
“Oh, then it's Betty, right? No, wait, wasn't it Kelly?”   
“Pep, please get your facts straight. Betty and I broke up months ago, and Kelly is my girlfriend. My secret lover is and will always be Bruce. Not to be confused with Rogers, who left me for Barnes.”   
“Oh yes, how could I forget.”  
The two of them loved to poke fun at rumours the tabloids spread about Tony's nefarious affairs. After all, once a playboy, always a playboy, right? Their favourites were his alternating relationships with his fellow avengers though. Apparently, since him and Bruce were spending so much time in the lab together, they had to be sleeping with each other, right? And obviously his and Cap's Civil War was only a big, messy break up. Not that he didn't think any of them unattractive. But that wasn't the point.  
“You know, one day I just might leave you for Natasha, then you and Bruce can finally let your love fly free.”   
“I guess that wouldn't be the worst scenario...”  
He opened the letter. “It's from May. I'm guessing rules and hints regarding the Spiderkid.” He start-ed reading it out loud.

Dear Tony and Pepper,

thank you so much for looking after Peter. It really means a lot to me. After all, he isn't the easiest to look after, with his spider-powers and all. But more importantly, I know that he is with good people I can trust, who Peter trusts, who know how to handle any extraordinary abilities and can take care of him accordingly.   
About his powers you probably know more than I do, so I think it's moot to list them here. Just know that he does like to hang on the ceiling, apparently, he has his best ideas upside down. Don't get a fright though when he walks on the ceiling, he tends to do that sometimes.  
Now, you won't be able stop him from patrolling, but we agreed that there is no skipping school, only in case of a world-ending crisis and when there is absolutely no one else around. All other patrolling is to be done after school; while staying with you I don't want him to swing through the entire city at night. But I imagine, he wants to spend as much time with you as he possibly can, so I don't think it will be too much of a problem.  
I have his timetable in here as well. Just so you know, when he needs to be where. He has a Spanish quiz on Monday and a presentation next week, he needs to prepare for. It is about Robotics, you'll have to ask him about the details, it is not exactly my forte. But I'm sure he'll ask you for input, if he hasn't done so already.  
I'm sure he has told you about Ned and MJ, his two best friends. If he isn't at school or out as Spider-Man, he is with them. He would love to invite them to come over and meet all of you, but that is en-tirely up to you. If it helps, Peter trusts them with everything, including his alter ego, and so do I.  
I am not sure if you are aware of his mental state, so I just want to address it. He has gone through so much trauma, ever since he was little; had to go through more loss and pain, most people do in their lifetime. Since his parents died, he has had nightmares. When Ben was killed, he started to develop anxiety, which got worse when he got those spider senses; and everything Thanos did didn't exactly help.  
He is prone to sensory overload, which is likely to lead to panic attacks. If he ever is in a situation like that, please make sure to get him his headphones, either the noise cancelling once, or his iPod, he has calming music on that. If it happens at school, the school nurse knows to inform you, to pick him up. He will be extremely quiet and withdrawn, please don't take it personally. He just needs to mini-mize all input, until he can process everything.  
He does have anxiety medication and he is very diligent about taking it, but thanks to that super me-tabolism, it doesn't always work to the fullest effect. He has a self-help kit, with distractions and breathing exercises (some of which I have listed on the back); I believe he trusts you enough to come for help if he needs it.  
On the back I have listed all the information you might need: phone numbers for the school, my ho-tel, my office and my cell phone, and also for Ned and MJ; a list of his allergies and what foods he absolutely hates.  
If there are any questions, issues or problems, just call me anytime!  
Thank you again so very much, I can't tell you, how much I appreciate it.  
All the best, May

“Fuck.”   
Pepper looked up at him. “Tony, are you ok?”   
He stayed silent a moment longer. “I may have underestimated what it means to babysit that kid.”   
She smiled and leaned against him. “Don't worry, you've been mentoring that kid for quite some time now, it's basically the same, just without the safety net. I'm sure, everything will work out just fine!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Peter wrapped himself up in his big blanket, when his phone started to buzz.  
21.14 MJ: Hey, Pete, first day at superhero central! How'd it go?  
21.14 Peter: Pretty good :) I got to web Captain America, Ant-Man and Mr. Stark :D :D :D  
21.15 Ned: WHAAAATTTT?!?!?!  
21.15 MJ: That's awesome, man!!!  
21.16 Peter: I know right! ;) I'll tell you the rest in school tomorrow  
21.16 Ned: YOU BETTER!


	2. Monday

Monday mornings usually sucked, especially when there was a test coming up. But knowing that your best friend is currently living with the actual Avengers... Life doesn't get much better than this.   
”Hey Ned, is Parker not here yet?” MJ dumped her bag in the chair next to his.   
“No, but imagine, him flying in with Iron Man himself!”   
MJ grinned. “Maybe Flash would stop calling him Penis...”  
The bell rang.   
“Maybe he was out all night avenging and is late because he had to debrief the president!”   
“Let's just hope, he isn't hurt...”   
Ned glared angrily at his friend. “Now, why would you say something like that?”   
“Chill, look, he's here.”  
Unfortunately, there was no Iron Man flying him in. Ned scooted over, so Peter could sit between both and start telling them about the compound.   
“Please tell me, you have a super dope reason for being late! Emphasize on the super...”   
“Good morning, Ned, it is nice to see you, too!”   
“Parker, drop the act and start talking!”   
“Hey, MJ, how are you doing?”  
Before she could conter, Ms. Richards, their Spanish teacher, entered, with a way to chipper “Olá!” She handed out the test right away, not really allowing for any further discussions about some super-secret sleep-over.   
“It's not a sleep-over”, Peter hissed back.   
“It kind of is”, MJ murmured, while writing in her answers.   
“No, it's not. I'm an Avenger, too, so I guess I sort of live there as well.”   
“Anything you would like to share with the class, Mr. Parker?”   
Ned had to bite back a grin.   
“No, Ms. Richards.”   
“I would like to remind all of you that this is an examination situation, so no comparing, talking or cheating.”   
“Yes, Ms. Richards”, the class answered in unison.  
Silence fell over the class, while everyone was working on their tests. Ned was not able to concentrate on Spanish at all. Hundreds of questions spun around his head, dying to be asked. He tried to bite it back but failed horribly.   
“So, does Thor sleep in Pjs? Or does he have a weird Asgardian robe or something.”  
Ned knew that Peter heard him but ignored him on purpose.   
“Seriously”, MJ chimed in, “does he wear that armor of his all day long?”   
Peter still tried his best to ignore his friends. Ned didn't need to check to know that Peter was already done with the test. His Aunt taught him Italian, and Spanish is so similar, he had no issues with it whatsoever. Sometimes he even corrected Ms. Richards.  
“I was wondering the same about Loki”, Ned whispered. “I mean, we only see him in his armor on television, but what does he wear at home?”   
“Quiet, back there! The next person talking, will spend the afternoon in detention!”  
Peter shot his friends an earnest look, before focusing back on the paper before him.  
Ms. Richards tests were always the same: after about 10 minutes, most of the students were finished and no one needed more than 20 minutes tops. But still, for the entire 50-minute period, everyone was to be quiet and “considerate, to your classmates who are still working.”  
He was not going to react to anything Ned or MJ would say, so Ned took a piece of paper and started to scribble down all the questions, like “What does Captain America eat for breakfast?” or “Who is Thor's favorite hero?” But Peter was already on his next project – Ned recognized the chemical for-mulas as his web fluid.  
“I have only one question I need answered right now” MJ muttered.   
“Fine, but only this one.”   
“Not fair!”, hissed Ned.   
“Shush. You'll get your answers later. Ok, so Black Widow. Is she as awesome in person as she is on the tv?”   
“Better” Peter answered quietly. “She is actually pretty fun to be around. I'm sure she would love to meet you; full on girl power!”  
MJ was starstruck, but the boys seemed to have giggled a bit too loud over her beaming face.   
“Parker, Leeds, you can pick up your detention slips after class.”   
Their classmates seemed to be quite amused about that, especially Flash had a big grin on his face. Awesome. Maybe Peter could arrange for the Avengers to scare him off a bit? That would be the absolute best.

10.58 Peter: Hey Happy. You don't need to pick me up after class, I will be working on a project and do some patrolling. :)  
11.01 Happy: Are you sure, Peter? I thought you agreed to help Tony with Mark 28?  
11.02 Peter: Absolutely. If I need a ride, I'll call, alright?  
11.03 Happy: Please do so. Then I'll see you tonight!  
11.03 Peter: Thanks, Happy!!! :D See you later :))

“So. You got detention.”  
“Please tell me, Captain America isn't such a spoil sport in real life.”   
“No. He's actually pretty cool. He and Bucky are still trying to catch up, you know, pop culture and stuff. I kinda get to teach them memes which is pretty dope.”  
For the next hour, Peter answered all the questions his friends had. No, Thor and Loki didn't run around all day in their armor. Yes, he did wear an Ironmansuit once. No, it did not go well. No, Mr. Stark did not know about it.  
They were interrupted, when Peter's phone buzzed.   
“No cellphones”, Mr. Jackson yelled from his desk, though he never even looked up from the book he was reading.

16.19 Tony Stark: Hey Pete, I thought you were gonna help me out in the lab!

“Oh my God!”, Ned squealed, “Mr. Stark is actually missing you!”

16.20 Peter: Sorry about that :( Ned, MJ and I are working on our robotics project...

“Did you just lie to Mr. Stark?” Both his friends looked at him with big, shocked eyes.   
“Sshh” Peter hissed, pointing towards the phone.   
Right, all his tech was linked to Mr. Stark's, he could probably listen in on them, if he wanted to.

16.20 Tony Stark: You know, you guys can work on that here! I'm happy to help out.

Both Ned's and MJ's mouths gaped wide open, staring incredulously at the phone screen.

16.21 Tony Stark: May gave me their contact details, I could quickly call up their parents, to make sure, it's alright.

If they weren't in detention, the trio would have probably screamed as loud as possible until they passed out. Being stuck in here, they had to bite it down, literally. Ned could almost taste blood.

16.22 Peter: Maybe tomorrow?

MJ repeatedly boxed against Peter's shoulder and Ned felt like he could faint any moment.

16.22 Tony Stark: Sounds good to me. I will call their parents and get back to you on that.  
16.22 Peter: Thanks Tony!

“Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod!”   
“What just happened?”   
As excited as they were, they tried to voice their joy as quietly as possible.   
“Did we just get invited to work with THE Tony Stark, Iron Man?”   
“I think, I'm gonna faint.”  
“Why didn't you tell him, where we actually are?”   
“Are you crazy, MJ? Do you really think, Peter should tell freaking Iron Man that we got detention?”  
“That YOU got detention.” MJ answered with a smug grin on her face. “I can leave whenever I want.”  
“But then you won't get to ask any questions”, Peter grinned back.  
“Ok, why didn't you tell him you were out Spider-Manning or whatever? Why did you have to pull us into this?”   
“Because he is probably tracking me right now. And he'll see I'm still at school.”   
“Mr. Stark has you chipped?”   
Peter nodded. “Part of the baby-monitor-program.”  
Before MJ could make fun of the baby-monitor, Peter's phone buzzed again.

16.29 Tony Stark: So I just talked to your friend's parents. And they are very welcome to spend tomorrow afternoon here. Happy will pick all of you up after school.  
16.29 Peter: Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaank you Mr. Stark!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D

The rest of detention went by like the blink of an eye. The three of them were trying to come up with as many scenarios as possible for the following afternoon, after all they needed to be ready for any-thing that might happen!  
Peter's experience with the heroes was great, he could keep a reality check on what might go down. No, Loki is not going to take over Manhattan again. Mr. Stark probably won't let them try on the suit. Pepper will probably be joining them for dinner. Doctor Strange is not going to beam them around the world; it's not that he couldn't, he was usually just too busy.  
“Alright kids, time to get out of here. Just behave next time and we can stop listening to that horrible Captain America video.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
As tempting as it was, Tony did not check Peter's location and vitals. Or at least he managed to hold out until about half past five.   
“FRIDAY, pull up Peter's tracker.”   
“He is in the elevator.”   
“What elevator?”   
PLING! The sound of the lab doors opening rendered any answer moot. “Thanks, FRI.”  
“Hi Mr. Stark!”   
He was never going to call him Tony, was he? “Hey kid. How was school?”   
Peter sat on the desk, letting his feet swing below him.   
“It was ok. Spanish went without a hitch, algebra wasn't anything extraordinary, but MJ and Ned are super excited to come visit tomorrow! Thank you again for inviting them. It means a lot.”  
Tony smiled back at the kids beaming face. “Well, they are your best friends. It's about high time I met them! After all, Ned helped you take down the Vulture.”   
“That he did”, Peter smiled.  
“So, how about you make yourself useful, and help me out over here.”   
“One second, I just quickly need to message May.”

17.46 Peter: Hi Aunt May! How is Chicago? Spanish went well, not much else happened. Ned and MJ are coming with me to the compound tomorrow, we're really looking forward! Mr. Stark said, he'll work with us on our robotics project!!!!! :D :D :D :D I am with him now, we're gonna work on one of his suits. Hope your seminar is interesting! Love you lots!!!!

The boy put his phone back into his backpack and jumped off the table. “Alright, what can I do?”   
“Grab those pliers and get in here!”  
The pair worked well together, Peter was a smart kid and good at following instructions. They made good progress, when FRIDAY interrupted their work.   
“Pepper asks you to wash up before dinner.”  
Tony checked the watch. “Oh, that late already. Bucky and Sam returned from a mission today, ob-viously they want to have dinner with you.”   
“Cool!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
They quickly went to wash up, and before heading to the dining room, Peter quickly checked his phone.

18.21 Aunt May: Hey Pete. Glad to hear your test went well. And I am very happy for you guys to work together with Tony! MJ's parents actually called me earlier, just to make sure I was aware that our kids were hanging out with Iron Man! :) You definitively must tell me how it went! My seminars are quite boring. We were talking all day about communication between offices, co-workers and … I'm not quite sure anymore, there was so much information and discussions... Well, day 1 over, only four more seminars and one party to get through. I love you, too! Take care and have a good night!  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Spidey!”   
“Hey Bucky, Sam, nice to see you!” Peter sat next to Tony, across from the returned heroes. “How was the mission?”   
“Classified”, Sam answered with a shrug.   
“Seriously, you can't tell us anything about it? I mean, who am I gonna tell. Ned?”  
Bucky chuckled. “We were in Nicaragua. The deal involved a whole bunch of drugs, money launder-ing for terrorist organizations and - for some of us – las chicas bonitas.”  
“Shut it, Buck”, Sam hissed.   
“No, keep talking, Buck!”, Natasha grinned. “You got lucky?”   
“Let's keep this PG 13, alright?” Tony nodded in Peter's direction.   
Natasha grinned at the boy, who let her know with a wink that he was thinking the same thing she was.  
“Wait, did you go to a casino?”  
Tony, Sam and Bucky looked at him, with a puzzled expression. “Casino?”   
With the most innocent face he answered: “Well, because you got lucky!”  
It took all Natasha had not to burst out with laughter at the sight of three grown men, who had de-fended the world again and again, losing all the color in their faces, worrying about having to have The Talk with Peter. She looked at the boy, who seemed to feel the same way she did.  
“Wait, but what do the beautiful women have to do with the casino? Did they work there?”   
How Peter could keep a straight face, Natasha did not know.  
“Pete, do we really need to talk about the birds and the bees?”, Tony asked cautiously.   
“What does the eco-system have to do with a casino?”   
Natasha couldn't contain her laughter anymore. It all burst out, and infected Peter, who could no longer keep up pretense.  
“Mr. Stark, I am 16 years old. I have seen movies. I know where babies come from.”   
Relief dropped from their faces.   
“Boy, you did have me going for a moment there”, Bucky laughed.   
When everyone had calmed down again, Natasha kept asking: “So, now we established the kid is not 7 anymore,” - she glanced at Stark - “you can keep talking. So, you got lucky in Nicaragua?”  
“Yes, James Buchanan Barnes, did you get lucky in Nicaragua? Because if you did, you might not get lucky for a really long time to come.”   
Bucky shot an angry glare at a smirking Natasha, before turning around with the widest smile on his face.   
“Steve! You know I would never... It was Sam, who slept with the drug-lord’s sister!”   
“You did WHAT?”  
“Thanks Bucky. Alright! I didn't ask her about her family relations or possible ties to drug cartels or terrorist organizations!” After an urging nod from Bucky he added: “But he was good. Really, Steve, nothing to worry about.”   
“I should hope so!”, Steve grumbled, before taking Bucky’s outstretched hand and letting him kiss him. “I'm glad you're back, safe and sound.”   
“Me too!”  
“Y'all's OTP could never... This is better than any soap opera.” Peter looked at them with the biggest heart eyes.   
“I agree”, Steve said, snuggling up to Bucky, “I'm really glad I dumped Stark for you.”  
“WHAT?” The boy jumped up on the chair, looking between Tony and Steve with big, shocked eyes.   
“Pete, calm down.”   
“No, but you... and you? How? When? Why?”   
“No, not at all, never and because I am way out of his league.”   
“Very funny Stark. You couldn't land this if you wanted to.”   
The poor boy looked like his entire worldview was just disproved.  
“Pete, Honey, nothing ever happened there.” Pepper entered the room and headed towards the kid. “We like to make fun of all the reporters who spread rumors about Tony's affairs. Which are abso-lutely bonkers. One of those rumors included that the Civil War, you joined in Germany, was nothing but a big break up.”  
“Oh.” Peter sounded relieved. “Ok, like the one about you and Rhodey?”   
“Excuse me?” Now Tony looked enraged. “You – and my best friend?”   
Pepper looked him straight in the eyes. “You and Bruce?”  
“Peter, you were right. This is just like a soap opera”, Natasha groaned exasperated.  
It took everyone a few more minutes to calm down, before they could have dinner.   
“Thank you, Pepper, I really like Thai food!”   
“I'm glad!” Pepper smiled at him.  
“Tony told me that your friends will be joining us tomorrow.”   
“YES! They are so excited to meet you... If you want that, I mean...  
The sentiment was clear: everybody was looking forward to meeting the two teenagers they have heard so much about.   
“MJ especially wants to meet Natasha and Pepper. And Wanda too! Badass women combining.”   
Pepper and Natasha smiled at each other. “We can't wait to add another into this very exclusive cir-cle!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
After dinner, Peter went pretty much straight to his room. He told them, he needed to finish some homework, but that wasn't exactly true. There was homework to be done, he was just not planning on doing it tonight.  
He had realized during dinner though that all that adrenaline and excitement was not going to carry him through the week. He needed time to be by himself, to absorb and process everything around him, otherwise he was going to crash hard and panic even harder.  
He did a quick wash and slipped into his Avengers pjs, before he fell onto his bed.

20.57 Peter: Hey May, are you still up?  
20.58 Aunt May: Pete, is everything alright?  
20.58 Peter: Yeah, I'm ok. Just wanted to talk to you before going to sleep. :)  
20.59 Aunt May: That's sweet. Are you sure, everything's ok though?  
21.00 Peter: It is. All the excitement is just really building up and I just need a breather before it becomes too much.  
21.01 Aunt May: Listen, I told Tony you struggle sometimes. You know, I will always listen and be there for you, but I am not the only one you can trust, ok? He will understand.  
21.01 Peter: Ok :) Thanks, Aunt May!  
21.02 Aunt May: Always, dear. Now, snuggle in, you have a long day ahead of you. Maybe listen to your playlist to help you sleep and you'll be all rested and well in the morning.  
21.03 Peter: Ok, I will. Good night, May, I love you.  
21.03 Aunt May: I love you too. Now sleep well and we'll talk tomorrow! :*


	3. Tuesday

“Hey, Pep?”   
“No, I will not allow you to skip today's meeting.”   
She didn't even look up at Tony. Damn, she knew him to well.  
“I don't want to skip a meeting, I would like to reschedule the one on Friday.”  
She looked up, with that very inquisitive stare. “What did Peter put you up to?”  
He smiled. “Nothing. Though I would like to put him up to something.”   
She leaned back in her chair. “I'm getting scared.”   
“You don't have to. I would just like your ok, for a little surprise for him.”  
“You have my attention.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
This was the day. The best day ever. The day, MJ was gonna meet Black Widow and Pepper Potts. If someone were to ask her what happened in school today, she would not have been able to answer that question. Ned, who was sitting next to her felt pretty much the same. Peter sat next to Happy, who picked them up from school. She was still in awe – up until the car with the Stark logo pulled up in front of the school, a part of her thought she dreamed the whole thing up.  
But now she sat in the car on the way to the Avengers mansion. She had barely gotten over the fact that one of her best friends was Spider-Man. And now she was going to meet the Avengers. Peter and Happy sat up front, chatting away, letting the two of them stew in their excitement.  
Ned sat next to her, barely able to sit still, bouncing nervously up and down. As excited as they were, they were also really scared. After all, what if the Avengers didn't like them? What if she embar-rassed herself in front of Ms. Potts? What if Mr. Stark thought they were too dumb for their project? She grabbed Ned's hand, he gratefully took it.  
All morning, Peter told them how excited he was to introduce everybody, and how the Avengers were just as excited to meet them. She wasn't entirely sure if that was true, but she gave him the benefit of the doubt.  
“We're almost there!” Peter turned around and excitedly pointed at the building coming up.   
“Are you ready?”, Ned whispered at her.   
“No, not really.” He pressed her hand.   
“Yeah, me neither.”  
“Ok, we're here!”   
“Thank you for driving us, Mr. Hogan!”   
“You're very welcome, guys. Peter, go ahead, show them around.”   
“You got it Happy. See you later!”  
If she had been able to eat anything, she would be sick right now. She and Ned slowly and, if she was honest, a little wearily followed him through the big glass door.  
“Guys, don't worry. They are going to love you. You ready to meet everyone?”   
She was too excited to speak and just nodded.   
“Alright”, Peter grinned, “FRIDAY? Time for the Avengers to assemble!”   
“They are waiting for you in the living room, Peter.”   
She and Ned looked around, looking for the source of the voice.   
“Thanks, FRI. Oh and this is MJ and Ned. FRIDAY is the AI basically coordinating everything in here.”   
“Hello Ned, hello MJ, it is very nice to meet you! Peter has told us a lot of very nice things about you!”   
Ned looked absolutely flabbergasted, she probably had the same look on her face.   
“Uhm, hello FRIDAY. Thank you.” Not exactly sure where to look, she looked around the room while answering.   
“Don't worry, you'll get used to it!”, Peter said with a big grin. “Come, it's this way.”  
“You guys ready? Alright, here we go!” Peter pushed the door open.   
And there they were. The Avengers. For real. They were sitting on the couches, and all turned their heads, when the Teens entered.  
“Pete! Hi, we've been waiting for you. Great, you're finally here!” Tony Stark walked up to them and patted her friend on the shoulders, before facing them with a big smile, holding his hand out. “And you must be Ned and MJ. Fantastic to meet you. Heard incredible things about you!”   
“Hello Mr. Stark, thank you so much, it's such an honor, and thanks for having us and wow.”   
“Thank you for coming!”, Mr. Stark answered with a smile.   
“Uhm, ok.”  
“Welcome to our home! Ned, MJ, it is wonderful to finally meet you!”   
Ms. Potts. Ms. Pepper Potts. MJ was very aware, her mouth was gaping open, but she couldn't close it, she just silently shook her hand.  
“I'm not sure, if he told you, but Peter signed you up for our 'awesome ladies club'.” Black Widow came up to her, with the biggest smile.   
“And we really needed someone with your intelligence as well.” Now also Scarlet Witch was standing there.   
By now MJ was ready to faint. “Uhm, ok.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Peter had the time of his life. Watching his friends meeting the Avengers was incredible. They react-ed pretty much the same way he did, when he first met them. After everyone greeted each other, and Ned and MJ were ready to pass out any moment, everybody settled in comfortably on the sofas.  
Pepper, Nat and Wanda already snatched up MJ, and the girls - and for some reasons Thor - were all huddled up together on the same couch. Ned was discussing the intricacies of vibranium and iron suits with Cap, Bucky, Tony, Sam and Rhodey.  
Peter sat with Loki, just watching his friends with the Avengers.   
“You're really proud of them, aren't you?”   
“Yeah, I am.” Peter smiled at him. “Though I have a feeling, we're not going to get any work done today.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Those kids were amazing. Obviously, they had to be, otherwise Peter wouldn't be friends with them. It was a lot of fun to chat with them; Ned was incredibly interested, curious and inquisitive; he was asking smart questions and was a quick thinker. And by the looks of it, MJ dazzled the ladies and Thor with her wits and smarts.  
Tony looked up at Peter from time to time. He was sitting in a corner with Loki, beaming with pride. And he should be proud of his friends. They were fantastic! Of course, no one was more fantastic than the Spiderchild. He now felt the pride rising in his own chest.  
Ned was so engulfed in the engineering of Bucky's arm, he didn't realize Tony getting up and sitting down, next to Peter.  
“You have pretty great friends.”   
Peter nodded. “Yeah, they are. All of you”, he added, looking up at Tony.   
Oh, there was this funny feeling in his stomach, all warm and fuzzy. Keep it together, Tony. Keep. It. Together.   
“You're not so bad yourself, kid.”   
Peters ears turned bright red, and he did that scrunchy thing with his nose, and damn, Tony just wanted to put his arm around the boy. KEEP! IT! TOGETHER!  
“I don't suppose we'll be getting too much work done today, are we?”   
Tony laughed. “No, probably not.”  
They didn't.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“YOU DID WHAT?” MJ's voice ripped Peter out of his thoughts and everyone else out of their conversations.   
“Huh?”   
His friend looked more shocked than when she found out that he was Spider-Man. Ned's expression was somewhere between worry and anticipation.   
“Why? What did you do?”  
“I don't know? What did you tell her?” Peter was quite puzzled and a bit worried, which embarrass-ing stories MJ might have heard.  
“You tried to blow up Mr. Stark?”   
“What?” Tony jumped up and stared him down. “You told me it was an accident.”   
“It was!”, Peter pleaded.   
He was pretty sure, Mr. Stark was just playing, but that was just so embarrassing; he hid his face in his palms. Most of the Avengers didn't even know about that.  
“Sorry Pete, I didn't want to make it into such a big deal”, Nat apologized, “but it was so funny!”   
“No, it wasn't!”, Peter and Tony replied in unison.   
“It actually really hurt...” Tony dramatically rubbed his side, letting out an exaggerated moan.  
“But what happened?” Ned was looking curiously between Nat and Peter.  
Peter groaned. “We were working on the Ironmanblasters and I accidently set one off that may have grazed Mr. Stark a little bit. It was really not bad!”   
Tony looked hurt. “How can you say that! You didn't have to live through the pain and the agony!”  
“You're one to talk”, Pepper scoffed, “one time you knocked the kid right out!”  
“WHAT?”   
“NO WAY!”   
“HOW DARE YOU!”   
The entire room erupted in outrage.   
“IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! We were taking down those ninjas and I swung around to blast one of them and maybe may have knocked into Peter.”   
Peter had to laugh. “I have to admit, I didn't exactly retain any memories from the fight, but it's not the worst thing to have Tony Stark owe you one...”  
“Ok, but that was a fight, stuff like that happens, but blasting someone in the lab?”   
“NED! Whose side are you on?” Peter was really amused, his friend partook in the discussion, but Ned should have to side with him, right? That was an unwritten law; and even if it wasn't, it really should be.  
“You know, he has a point”, Mr. Stark said, sitting back next to Peter.  
“So? You once took almost half the building down with your shooters.”   
“Oh damn.”   
Tony's chin dropped. Peter smirked, being very proud to have rendered Ironman speechless.   
“Pepper. You told him?”   
Pepper leaned back, her arms crossed, not replying; but her eyes said enough.   
“Well”, Peter threw in, “she just loves me more than she loves you.”   
Pepper winked and blew Peter a kiss.  
“I can't believe it. I have been betrayed. By my future-wife and my Spiderling! I... I have to … I can't...” Tony's dramatic rendition was accompanied by a deeply tragic expression on his face, while clutching his heart; causing everyone else to break out in laughter.  
“Ok, whose embarrassing story is next? Bucky, you got to have a whole lot of good pre-serum Steve stories?” Nat looked at him expectantly.   
Before Bucky could answer, or Steve could complain, MJ just muttered: “Well, whatever it is, it can't be worse than the PSAs...”  
“What PSA?”   
Everyone in the room looked confused, Steve turned bright red.   
The three teenagers looked at each other and simultaneously stood up, putting on foot up and leaned on their knee, while pretending to hold an invisible shield, before reciting in unison: “So, you got de-tention.”  
Giggling, the three of them fell back on the couches.   
“Honestly, my favorite is: 'So, your body is changing. Trust me, I know what that's like'”, the other two chimed in, laughing out loud.  
“Oh, my goodness, I can't believe you saw that!”, Steve muttered before burying his face in a cushion.  
“FRIDAY, please pull up one of Captain America's PSAs!”   
“Would you like to see a specific one?”   
Peter, MJ and Ned exchanged a few glances, before Peter answered: “Let's start with the 'your body is changing'.”  
Moments later the TV flared up, before showing the familiar masked face. “So, your body is chang-ing.”  
They went through all of them, most of them twice. The teens knew all of them by heart and man-aged to not only speak along with Steve, but actually mimic his mannerisms and speech pattern. The grown-ups had the time of their lives, even Steve started to laugh after the third video.  
“Now, Mr. America, I am really sorry, but I have to admit, I really didn't like you for a while, not ex-actly because of those videos, but, well, that stamina-running thing you must do every semester...”  
“Oh, Steve, please tell me you didn't voice that as well.” Bucky looked at him with pitiful eyes.   
Steve only replied with: “I'm sorry, Ned...”  
“But wait,”, Wanda chimed in, “isn't Midtown a Tec school, full of Nerds and Geeks?”   
“Exactly”, Peter replied. “Trust me. This test doesn't get over well with most students, and as a result, you may not be the most popular Avenger...”  
“That I can imagine”, Steve admitted with a weak smile. “But hey, it was one of the first things I did, when I got out of the ice. Didn't seem like the worst idea at the time, we had similar PSAs quite regu-larly back in the days; except they were read or recorded and played on the gramophone. Though they mostly had to do with war...”  
“Oh yeah. Do you remember the one about uniforms?”   
Steve laughed out loud. “Oh yeah, how did it go again? 'Shoes all clean is never mean! The shirt is tucked, or you'll get struck.”   
MJ snorted out loud. “Oh god, that's so lame!”  
“Trust me, it's lame, even for the 40's.”  
“One moment.” Tony interrupted the laughter. “Peter. Why do you know the detention one so well?” He turned to his mentee with a stern look on his face.   
Peter felt heat rise and knew he was turning redder than his suit. He didn't look up but felt the eyes of everyone in the room on him.  
“Uuuuuuuuuuuh...”   
“Look at me, young man.” Peter looked up at Tony, his eyebrow raised at him.   
Natasha laughed. “Are you going to ground him now?”   
Tony crossed his arms. “I'm honestly considering it.”  
Now Peter had to pull out all the stops. “Then I would like to note that the reason I got detention last time was because I told them- “he pointed at Ned and MJ, “- how cool you all are.”   
“Yes, we can attest to that”, MJ and Ned nodded.   
“Oh.”  
Peter stared right back at Mr. Stark. “So, if you do want to ground me, know, it will be because I like you all so much. And this disciplinary measure would teach me, not to do that.”   
Pepper burst out laughing, the rest of the Avengers joined in, except for Tony, who was rendered speechless for the second time this afternoon.  
“This was the absolute best afternoon, EVER!”, Ned squealed, when Happy came to take them home.   
“Tell me about it!”, MJ grinned back, with Pepper and Natasha each having one arm around her shoulder. “Maaan, I wish we could tell everyone at school!”  
“I can imagine, but with great power and knowledge comes great responsibility. Everyone in here trusts you guys – especially Peter. After all, you're his guys in chairs.”   
MJ and Ned proudly puffed their chests out.   
“Damn straight, we are!”   
“The absolute best!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
The good-byes took another half an hour, until Happy managed to get the two teens into his car. To-ny and Peter stood by the gates and waved, until they were out of view.   
“Don't know about you, but I'm hungry”, he said to the kid.   
“Tacos?”   
“Sounds good to me. FRIDAY?”   
“Delivery will be here in 30 minutes, boss.”  
Half an hour later, everybody was sitting together, enjoying their food. A few of them at least. After taking the afternoon off, Pepper had to be back in the office, so did Rhodey. And Steve and Bucky had a date night planned.  
“Man of Spiders, I am absolutely delighted with your friends. MJ is of great intellect and wit, she truly is a worthy friend.”   
Wanda agreed with Thor. “She is really badass.”   
“You can say that again. I think I'd like to take her in as my trainee.”  
“Nat, you can't just go around adopting kids!”, Tony exclaimed.   
“Why not?”, Natasha asked back, “you did the same with Pete!”   
“What?”   
The weirded-out look on Peter's face only hurt a little.   
“Mr. Stark did not adopt me!”   
“Don't need to sound so appalled, Underoos...”  
“No, Mr. Stark, it's not what I mean, it's just, you know, you're my... he's my mentor and Ironman,... I mean not my Ironman, but... It would be good to be your kid! Not me, I'm not saying, I want to be your kid, but one day, when you have one with Pepper...”  
Peter's entire rant was accompanied with awkward laughter and very red cheeks.   
“Kid, relax. We know what you mean.”   
He did sort of. He couldn't deny that he started to develop some sort of weird and warm familiar feeling towards the boy. He wouldn't go that far as to call them fatherly, but that was going way to far right now. And apparently it wasn't exactly what Pete wanted anyways, so best to bury that entire thing somewhere deep.  
“Honestly, next time I have issues with my wings, I might just call up Ned.” Sam quickly changed the topic. “That kid is seriously smart.”   
Peter nodded, happy about talking about something else. “He helped me hack the spider suit. And shut down the training wheels”, he added triumphantly.   
Tony grumbled. “Seriously forcing me to up my game.”  
“Oh, poor little Stark”, Loki mocked, getting a chuckle out of Natasha and Sam and a mad stare from Tony.   
“You know, just let Ned build all your tech. Sounds like you don't need me anymore”, he pouted.   
“At least Ned won't build an AI into our devices.”   
“Hey, you all agreed it helps to have FRI on your phones!” They had to be kidding him. “You trai-tors.”  
“You're still my second favorite hero, Mr. Stark!”   
“Wow, kid, you really know how to cheer a man up.” Tony deadpan looked at the teen's bright smil-ing face, before giving in and grinning back. “Ok, then. Thanks. But who's number one?”   
“The only person stronger than Ironman.”   
“Pepper?”   
“Pepper!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Hello?”   
“Hi Aunt May!”   
“Pete! So good to hear your voice!”   
“Yours too!”   
May had to smile; Peter sounded so excited after his day with his friends at the Avenger's. “Let's hear it; how was your afternoon?”   
Peter seemed to have waited for that invitation.   
“It was amazing!”   
Peter talked non-stop for 20 minutes, barely stopping for breath and throwing little details in every-where; it all became a little hard to follow.  
“And then Natasha said to maybe teach MJ some self-defense and Ned would probably like to join, and oh, I forgot, we told them about the PSAs, you know those Captain America videos; they are so bad, they are already funny again! And he promised he would not do any more of them. And then...”  
“Wow Petey, that does sound incredible.” May finally got a few words in.   
“I know, right! And they all loved them so much!”   
May couldn't help but smile. “I am so happy for you dear. I didn’t expect anything less, but I am still so glad you had such a nice afternoon.”  
“How was your day?”   
“Oh, nothing much happened.” She quickly recapped her day, the seminars and lectures, but mostly how much she missed her nephew. “And I finally had some of that famous Chicago-style pizza.”   
“And?”   
“Not even in the same league as Fredo's.”   
Peter laughed. “Ok, I will take you out for Fredo's, when you get back. Oh, and maybe we can invite Pepper and Mr. Stark!”   
“That sounds like a wonderful idea”, May agreed. A little thank you for taking care of Peter.   
They chatted for another bit, although mostly Peter chatted, while May listened. She could hear the smile on his face and his glinting eyes from Chicago.  
“Petey, I'm so glad, you're having a good time with the Avengers. Do I have to worry about you not wanting to come back home with me?”   
Peter laughed. “Only if you also move here!”   
“Sounds like a plan! Anyways, it's high-time you went to bed, Mister. So, tuck in, sleep well and thou-sand kisses from Chicago!”   
“I love you, too!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
20.41 unknown: Hello Michelle, did you make it home alright?  
20.42 MJ: Who dis?  
20.43 unknown: Sorry, it's Tony Stark. May gave me your number, just in case.  
20.44 MJ: Hi Mr. Stark, Thank you again for having us there today! It was really great to meet you.  
20.44 Tony Stark: The pleasure is all mine!  
20.45 Tony Stark: Now, I am planning a surprise for Peter, and I could use your help...  
20.45 MJ: Shoot!  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
20.41 unknown: Hello Ned, I hope you had a good drive back home.  
20.43 Ned: Hello, I am really sorry, but I do not have your number saved in my phone. Who are you?  
20.44 unknown: Sorry, it's Tony Stark.  
20.45 Ned: oh, hi Mr. Stark! Wow, thank you again for today, it was like the best day ever! :D :D :D  
20.46 Tony Stark: I'm glad, you had a good time. Now, I'm messaging, because I need your help  
20.46 Ned: WHAAAT?  
20.46 Ned: But you're Ironman!!!  
20.47 Ned: How can you need my help?  
20.48 Tony Stark: Actually, you're very important for my plan...  
.-.-.-.--.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
1 a.m. As hard as he tried, Peter just couldn't fall asleep. All the excitement of today, of this entire week, was still riling him up.  
Maybe a little swing through the neighborhood would help him. Also, he hadn't been patrolling all week. Just one hour or two, then he could still have a few hours of sleep. Sounded like a good plan, so he crawled out of bed and put on his suit.  
“FRIDAY?”   
“Yes, Peter?”   
“Please don't tell anyone that I have gone out, ok? I just need some fresh air, I'll be back real soon.”   
“Do you always require your spider suit for a short breather?”   
Peter rolled his eyes. “It has a heater, in case I get cold. Also, KAREN can help me find back, if I were to get lost.”   
“Alright, Peter. I will not tell anybody.”   
“Thanks, FRIDAY!” With that, he pulled the mask over his face and climbed out the window.  
He was glad, Mr. Stark had built a heater into the suit. After all, it was October and it got really cold at night. He was just as glad to have KAREN, someone to talk to. So, while swinging through the city, he told her everything that had been happening to him that day.  
It was almost 2.30 am, and Peter was just about to head back, when he heard the shots being fired. They came from a small bodega; its neon 24/7 sign was illuminating half the street.   
“KAREN, can you make out how many are in there?”   
“It seems, there are three people.”   
“Alright, let's do this!”  
He swung in and used the initial moment of surprise to web the first perp to the floor. The second guy was a bit quicker on his feet and dove behind a shelf, but not before firing a few shots in Peter's direction.  
“You ok?”, he called to the shop keeper. He could only nod a scared yes, before hiding behind the counter.   
“Call the police!”, Peter called, “I'll handle this.”  
Peter climbed on the ceiling, cautiously looking for the second gunman. His spider sense went off, but it was too late. He headed for the other side of the room, when a sharp pain hit his leg. He screamed out loud, lost his balance and crashed right down into a newspaper rack. Ooooh, his head! But he had no time to feel sorry for himself. Perp two came towards him, a knife in his hand. The fight was quickly over. Despite his injuries, he managed roll over before he could be hit and webbed the rob-ber's hands together, before knocking him out; all in one fluid motion.  
Peter heard the police sirens nearing and turned to the bodega owner.   
“The police are almost here, they can handle the rest. Have a good night!” With that, Peter walked out.  
He heard a faint “Thank you, Spider-Man!”, while swinging onto the next best roof, where he col-lapsed against a small wall.   
“KAREN, what just happened?”   
“You just saved a man's life.”   
“TO ME!” He wasn't really in the mood for something like this. His head felt like it could explode any moment now, and the blinding pain in his leg wasn't particularly encouraging.  
“When the robber shot at you, he grazed your thigh, but didn't hit anything vital. Though the blood loss is not to be taken lightly, I advise stitches. When you fell, you hit your head; but I cannot detect any signs of a concussion. By tomorrow you shoulder will be bruised relatively badly, and it seems you have a few light contusions to your side. With your super healing it won't take you long to heal, but I do recommend informing Mr. Stark and give a call to the med bay.”  
“No!”, Peter yelled, “do not inform Mr. Stark or anyone!”   
“Peter, it would be irresponsible...”   
“KAREN”, he interrupted the AI, “Mr. Stark cannot know I went patrolling. I agreed not to, and I didn't inform him, when I left, and like you said, it's nothing super healing can't fix. And also, there's no need to bother him at this time. It's almost 3a.m. And I don't think it's important enough to wake him.”  
“Are you sure?”   
“Yes, I am.”   
“Then I suggest, you swing back.”  
The swing home was exhausting. He tried to keep his leg as still as possible, but that was almost im-possible. The fact that his head was spinning didn't exactly help. If it weren't for KAREN, he would have crashed into a few buildings. Finally, he saw the Avengers logo glooming up ahead, and mo-ments later, he climbed up the side of the building and through the window.  
“Hello Peter.” FRIDAY's voice greeted him, “did anything happen?”   
Peter suppressed a groan. “Nothing at all!”   
He limped into the bathroom, and almost cried out at the sight of his reflection: his face was bloody, so were his hands. He carefully took off his suit. His side already started to swell up. And his leg – he could barely stand on it; blood was streaming down his leg. He quickly wiped up as much as he could, as to not leave any traces or stains. Thankfully he started to travel around with a first aid kit in his bag. Came in handy in most patrols, and tonight he was especially grateful. He quickly bandaged his leg up, he had been spidermanning long enough and was quite good at it by now.  
Now the face. He cautiously cleaned up the blood and was relieved to see that his fall only got him minor cuts. No one would even notice them.  
When Peter fell into bed a few moments later, everything hurt. Please don't let me down, super genes! With that thought in mind he drifted off.


	4. Wednesday

“Good Morning, Peter, time to get up for school.“ KAREN's voice ripped him out of his uneasy dreams.   
He sat up – and instantly regretted it. His head was spinning hard, it took a lot to only open his eyes. He took a deep breath and before he slowly got up and made his way to the bathroom.  
Fortunately, the cuts and bruises on his face were minimal, like he suspected last night, people wouldn't necessarily notice. Carefully he took off his Pjs. His right shoulder was dark purple-blueish. Down his side it didn't look better: a swollen reddish-blue mark from his ribs to his hips showed clearly where he landed.  
Cautiously he unwrapped the bloody bandage. It didn't bleed anymore, but it did look like it could do with some stitches. Don't worry, it'll heal in no time, no need to have Tony or May worried. He wrapped a fresh bandage around his leg and made a mental note to get some more gauze after school today.  
It took Peter 10 minutes to get dressed, but he finally made it to the kitchen, where Tony and Pepper were already eating their cereal. The sound of the spoons plinking against the bowls echoed through his head on maximal volume.  
“Good morning, Peter.“   
“Mrng Misr Sark.“  
“Kid, are you alright?“ Both adults looked at him with worried eyes.   
“Is ok. Dinn't sleep.“   
“Come, sit down.“ Pepper pulled up the chair beside her, the feet scratching on the floor like nails on a chalkboard.  
She put her hand on his forehead.   
“'m not ill. Jus' tired.“   
“Pete, maybe you should stay home today, sleep it off or something. But I can't send you to school like this.”   
Peter did notice the concern in Tony's voice, but if he wanted to pretend that nothing happened, he had to power through.   
“No, issokay. Getting Spanish results, robotics prep for next week and geography's fun.” Peter man-aged a weak smile, but he doubted it convinced either one of them.  
“I believe Ned or MJ can get all your schoolwork, missing one day really isn't that bad. Especially with your grades!”   
Tony and Pepper were so kind, but they already did so much for him, and sacrificed all of yesterday, he couldn't ask them to do that two days in a row.   
“Maybe a deal.”, Peter suggested, trying to sound as fit and convincing as possible. “I go to school but inform you as soon as something's wrong.”   
The grown-ups looked dubious, but after a moment of silence Tony slowly nodded. “The moment it is overwhelming for you, you or Ned or MJ or KAREN message me, and someone will come and pick you up. Promise.”   
“Promise”, Peter nodded.  
“Good. Now have some breakfast. You are not leaving the house without something in your stomach.”

The ride to school was not as bad as Peter had feared. It was painful, fighting the urge to limp, but neither Tony nor Happy noticed anything. The ride itself was quiet. Peter had his eyes closed and tried to focus on his breathing, and if they hadn't arrived at the school, he probably would have dosed off.  
“Ok, Peter, I have to be in town all day. If you decide you'd rather rest up in bed, I will be here in no time at all!”   
“Thanks, Happy.”  
Peter wanted to return the moment he got into the classroom. Everybody was talking loudly, the voic-es echoing through his head, swirling around through his head, becoming indistinguishable and bare-ly understandable.  
“You look horrible!”   
“Morn, MJ!” Peter nodded at his friends, before putting his head down.   
“Hi Ned.”   
“Seriously Dude, you look horrible. Is everything alright?”   
Peter could barely understand his friends over the classroom noise. He fought the urge to hold his eyes and ears shut.   
“Jus' tired. Dinn't sleep las' night.”  
“Funny. Did it have anything to do with the fact that Spider-Man saved a bodega?”   
He looked at his friend. “How did you, I mean, where, but...”   
“Mr. Gonzales is my neighbor”, MJ explained, “I overheard him talking about how Spidey saved his life.”  
Both his friends looked immensely proud. In all honesty, Peter couldn't care less at the moment, but he managed a week smile. “Keep it out the papers. No one knows. I'll get in trouble.”  
The Spanish lesson seemed to go on forever. The ticking of the clock echoed through Peter's head and it made every second to seem like an eternity. Thankfully he wasn't on Mrs. Richards radar today, so he could safely zone out, pretend to be alright whilst trying to ignore the dull ache in his side.  
They did get their results back, but Peter could not register his or his friends’ results. But the two seemed happy, so it couldn't be too bad.  
The shrill sound of the bell made him jump, sending a shiver down his spine. Breathe, Parker, just breathe.  
The trio headed to the robotics lab. Peter had no idea what they were discussing, he concentrated hard not to let his limp show.  
Another high-pitched ring started robotics class. And that's when everything went wrong.  
Every group was working on their project and the room was filled with loud discussions, clanging hammers, metal being scratched, switches clicking. Everywhere little lamps were lighting up, shining brightly, blinding. Every hit with a hammer made him jump. The grinding of gears made him want to rip his ears off. He wanted to close his eyes, shield himself from the blinding lights, but he couldn't. He could sense danger all around. What if someone were to hurt him again? What if - like last night – he was too slow to react? As if on cue he could feel his leg starting to bleed again.  
The noise grew louder. He tried to regulate his breathing, but he barely got any air.  
The noise grew louder. His head felt like a warhead – ready to blow up any moment.  
The noise grew louder. All around was danger. Sharp metal objects. Hard swinging hammers. Every-thing washed together in a weirdly colorful blur, almost like he was inside a kaleidoscope. He couldn't breathe.  
“Peter?”   
“Don't touch me!” He jumped back, felt the wall behind his back and slowly slid down.  
Danger!  
Loud chatter filled the room. Peter heard his name, but he couldn't react. He buried his head in his hands. He got dizzier. He felt a hand on his shoulder.  
DANGER!   
“NO!” He pushed the attacker away and made for the corner. Hide, Peter, Hide!  
Then everything went dark.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Tony couldn't concentrate on anything that was discussed. He couldn't shut the little voice of worry down; the voice telling him that the Spiderling was seriously ill, or broken or whatever teenagers with spider genes were. He should have forced the boy to stay, forced him to go back to bed. A buzzing in his pocket brought him back to reality.

10.22 Ned: MR. STARK! MR. STARK!!!! ANSWER YOUR PHONE!!!! PLEEEEE-AAAAASEEE!!!!  
Oh fuck.  
10.22 Tony Stark: Ned, what happened?  
10.23 Ned: I don't know, Peter was screaming, then passed out, his leg is bleeding really bad!!!  
10.23 Tony Stark: Shit. I'm on my way!

“Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm sorry, there is an emergency.” With that, he pieced his suit together and flew straight out the window.  
Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why did he let Peter out of the house and out of his sight?   
“FRIDAY, call Bruce.”   
“Calling Dr. Banner.”   
Come on, pick up, PICK UP!  
“Tony?”   
“Bruce, you need to get to the compound right now. Spiderling is hurt and I need you to repair him.”   
“Tony, I'm sorry, but I'm still in Cambridge. It will take me hours to get back.”   
“Damnit, what good are you? FRIDAY, call Strange!”   
“Calling Dr. Strange.”  
Tony arrived at the school only moments later. In full Ironman gear he rushed through the school, ignoring all the incredulous stares, till he got to the workshop. A group of students and teachers look-ing worried stood around the room.   
“Ned, MJ, where is Pete?” He didn't have to look around to feel all the shocked faces on him.  
“Mr. Stark, over here!“   
Tony pushed through the transfixed crowd. In the corner of the room Peter had managed to wedge himself between the wall and a cupboard. A puddle of blood had collected underneath him.   
“Shit. Guys, what happened?”   
“I don't know, he said he was tired, then he started screaming, pushed Ned away and passed out!”, MJ stammered.   
Ned looked like he was close to tears. “And now we can't get him out of there.”   
Jup, the kid stuck himself in there. At least he didn't climb up the wall, that would have been tough to explain.  
He kneeled in front of the boy. “Hey Pete, it's me Tony. You gonna let me help you? Remember, we made a deal this morning.”   
The kid stirred, seemed to loosen his grip, giving Tony the chance to pull him out.   
“Look, that wasn't so hard. Alright, let's get you home.” He carefully lifted the boy into his arms, bridal style, trying to steady his leg. At least it stopped bleeding.   
For a moment the boys eyes fluttered open. He held tight onto Tony and whispered: “I'm sorry, Un-cle Ben.”, before going limp again.   
Oh shit. But Tony had to deal with that later.  
“If you check his records, you'll see that I'm his emergency contact”, he yelled at who he assumed was the teacher, while heading for the door.   
Before he left, he quickly turned around. “Ned, MJ, thanks for calling me. You're the best.”   
With that he left Midtown and its stunned students and teachers behind and flew back, reaching his new personal best time.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Everything around him was dark, but Peter could still hear faint voices, growing louder, closer to him. But where was he?   
“Pete? Peter, are you with me?”  
Be careful! This is a trap! Wearily Peter opened his eyes, trying to make out his location. But all he saw were vague shapes, moving around him, getting closer. Danger!  
“Pete, you're up! Look at me.” He felt a hand on his shoulder.   
DANGER!   
“DON'T TOUCH ME! STAY AWAY!”   
He lunged at the hostile figure, threw a punch as hard as he could and got free. But he was cornered. The only way was up. With one jump he got to the ceiling, far away from anyone who could do him harm. Here, he was safe. Safe enough to close his eyes again.  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Fuck, that hurt!” Tony was sitting on the floor, shocked and bleeding. “That kid packs a punch!”   
“Here.” Stephen handed him an icepack and a towel for his bleeding, probably broken nose. “Let me take a look, Tony.”   
“Later.”   
Strange pulled him back to his feet.   
“First we have to deal with this.” Tony pointed at the ceiling.   
The kid was firmly stuck there – but unconscious.  
“We can't just leave him up there!”   
“But I don't see how we'll get him back down...”   
The two men looked at each other for a moment, before Strange eventually suggested: “I guess this is the time to call his aunt...”   
Oh damn. He really hoped he wouldn't have to make a S.O.S. call. May legit scared him. She was a lot like Pepper, and that was enough for Tony not to want to make her mad. But he needed to be responsible, and maybe she knew how to get him from the ceiling...  
“Tony. What's wrong? Where is Peter?” Oh, she sounded really anxious.   
“May, he is here. In the med bay.”   
“WHAT? What happened? Is he hurt?”   
“May, I'm really sorry. I'm still trying to find out what happened. Ned called me, after Peter passed out. Dr. Strange checked him out, nothing too bad, after all he has super healing.”   
He heard a loud exhale, he figured at least a bit of that was relief.  
“Ok. But I think it's probably best I'm coming back home early.”   
“You don't need to. We almost got it under control.”   
“Almost?”   
Damn, wrong choice of words.   
“It's just, that... well...”   
“Tony. What is it?”   
“He passed out on the ceiling.”   
“Excuse me?”   
“Yeah. He cried out to stay away, punched me in the face, jumped on the ceiling and is sleeping there now.”   
“Oh God.” It was silent for a moment.  
“Ok, first of all I'm sorry. Is your face ok?”   
“Nothing that won't heal.”   
“Ok, secondly, I did not know he could … sleep... on the ceiling.”   
“Ok, that's not the answer I was hoping for. We'll just put all the mattresses underneath, in case he falls.” Tony motioned to Stephen to do just that; moments later the mattresses moved, engulfed in blue lights.  
“Smart. But seriously, you think I should stay in Chicago?”   
Tony took a deep breath. “Honestly, I'm not sure. But before you get in trouble with your boss, I would maybe not leave head over heels.”   
“Damnit, Tony, that's my kid. I can't just ignore if he falls sick!”   
“May, I don't want to keep you out of anything. Least of all away from Peter.”   
“I know.”  
Silence.  
“Ok, Tony. I know, he is in the best hands with you and your team of doctors. You will call me, if need be every five minutes. Every time his condition changes even a little bit, you call. Call me the minute he wakes up. And if he isn't better by tonight, I will come home.”  
“That sounds reasonable. I promise, I will keep you updated, all day long.”   
“Thank you, Tony.”   
Tony hesitated a moment.   
“Is there anything else, Tony?” Damn, that woman was smart.   
“He called me Uncle Ben”, Tony blurted out.  
“Oh.”   
Shit, was she crying? Damnit, he couldn't do anything right, could he?   
“May, it's not that big a deal, he was half-asleep and probably dreaming. I just felt a little weird, and …”   
“Tony”, she interrupted him, “it's ok. I'm not upset. It's actually touching that he trusts you so much, awake or not.”   
Ooooh, not what he expected. But there was no time for emotions.   
“Thanks, May.”  
A little later she hung up. “Puuuuh.” Tony took a deep breath.   
“That was tough to listen to”, Strange remarked.   
“Yeah, no kidding.”  
Peter was still asleep on the ceiling.   
“That kid never fails to amaze me.”   
“Right, sit down. Let me take a look at that nose.”  
Fifteen minutes later, Tony wore a fresh shirt without bloodstains, had a cleaned-up face and a big plaster over his nose. Damn, that's the type of souvenir he won't get rid of for a while...   
“Rest up a little bit. I do need to go back to the sanctum, but Peter's in a good condition. His leg is stitched up, all his cuts are cleaned and the creme should help with the swelling. I think he needs to rest, more than anything else. In case of emergency just message me, I'm only a portal away.”   
“Thanks, Stephen.” With a nod, the wizard disappeared.  
Tony sat up on the bed next to the mattress pile. “Kid, you're gonna be the death of me.”   
He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before calling out for his AI. “What happened to Peter? Tell me everything, starting from when he went to his room last night.”   
“He washed up, went to bed. At around one a.m. he got out of bed, changed into his spider suit and left for a bit of fresh air. He arrived shortly after three o'clock.”   
“What? He went out patrolling? Why didn't you tell me?”   
“Peter told me not to.”   
“Damnit, Friday. Can you pull up KAREN's log from last night?”  
As FRIDAY read the entries to him – he would have read it himself, but his face was slightly swollen, blocking his vision just a tad – he got angry. At the kid for being reckless, at the AI for not telling him, but mostly at himself. He should have known the boy would sneak out. He should have sent him straight to the med bay this morning. He just – he should have known. And now the kid was hurt. Shot in the leg, bruised and battered, and who knew what was going on in his mind?  
Dreaming about Uncle Ben, apologizing... For what? That kid didn't have a dishonest bone in his body, what could he have done? As if he knew, Tony was thinking about him, Peter stirred.   
“Pete? Do you hear me?”   
At least Peter couldn't break anymore of Tony's bones from up there.   
“Mmhhmm.” A reaction at least.  
“Pete, it's me. You're alright. You're safe.”   
Peter grumbled, some unintelligible sounds, his eyelids fluttering.   
“Can you hear me Pete? I'm here. You're safe.”  
“Uncle Ben?”   
“Uhm...” Tony hesitated. When Peter thought he was talking to Ben, maybe he could get him down from the ceiling. But the last thing he wanted to do, was to misuse the relationship between Pete and his uncle.   
“Uncle Ben?”, Peter called again, louder this time.  
“Hey, yes, I'm here, kiddo. Are you alright?”   
Peter shook his head. “'m feeling dizzy. Danger everywhere. 'm scared.”   
Keep cool, Stark.   
“There's no need to be scared, Petey. I'm here. Nothing will ever happen to you, I'll make sure of that.”   
“Promise?”   
“Promise. Now, how about you get down from the ceiling, so we can...”   
Tony couldn't finish his sentence. With a quick swing, Peter flew right into Tony's arms. “Whoa there, kid. I'm not twenty anymore.”   
“Sorry”, Peter mumbled, before nuzzling his head against Tony's neck.   
“I love you, Uncle Ben.”   
“I... I love you, too.”  
Peter went limp again, heavy against Tony.   
“Alright there, kid.” He carefully put him on one of the beds. Ok, he tried to. As he let go, the kid was still wrapped firmly around his torso.   
“Uhm, kid?” Peter stuck to him. Subconsciously. Tony had no idea how to react.   
“Uhm, FRIDAY? Little help?”, he whispered.   
“It seems, he is using his spider powers to stick to you.”   
“Yeah, no shit. I mean, can you get him off me?”   
“I can call the Avengers for help, though I imagine it would wake him up. I am not sure it would end well.”   
Probably not, if Peter woke up, being forcibly removed from who he thought was Uncle Ben, there'd be more than a broken nose.  
“Well, I guess this might as well happen.” He got up on the bed, his arm around the boy, Peter's head resting on his chest. At least he won't fall off the ceiling here.

“FRIDAY? Please tell Pepper to come down here.”  
Maybe she wouldn't be all that angry with him for flying out a meeting, what, with a passed-out boy on his chest and a broken nose. Who was he kidding, she probably already locked him out of the work-shop. Damnit. What he didn't endure for this kid. “Seriously, one day you'll be the death of me”, he murmured.  
I love you. No, that was directed at Uncle Ben, not Tony. There was no need to make this more emo-tional than it had to be.  
I love you, too. Tony just said, what the kid needed to hear! No big deal, it got him safely down, and gave Peter some peace or something like that. It meant absolutely nothing. Same with that weird, mushy feeling in his stomach. No need to be feeling stuff like that. He was Peter's mentor, his friend, nothing more. Right?  
“Tony?”   
Thank God for Pepper’s timing; who knows where his thoughts would have taken him...   
“Hey Pep, be quiet, the Spiderling is asleep.”   
“Tony, what the hell is going on?”   
“Long story…”   
Pepper sat down on the bed next to Tony’s, crossing his arms. She reminded him of his headteacher, listening to his most outrageous excuses.   
“Ok, let me see. First Peter wakes up looking like hell, but still goes to school. A few hours later FRIDAY informs me you flew out of a meeting, giving no apparent reason - which we will be discuss-ing another time – and now FRIDAY calls me down, telling me you have a broken nose and an un-conscious kid sticking to you. Start from the top. Leave nothing out.”   
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Oh damn.” After Tony had finished the story, she was quiet for a moment, before she quietly chuck-led.   
“Ok, I think a broken nose is enough. FRIDAY, you can grant Tony access to the lab again.”   
“Gee, thanks.”   
“So, what do we do with this?” Pepper nodded towards the kid.   
Tony looked down and carefully brushed a few locks from Peter’s face.  
It was adorable. Pepper tried to bite back a smile but failed horribly. Oh, Tony was in so much trou-ble! She really should have brought a camera.   
Tony caught her eye. “Stop what you’re thinking right now.”   
“I’m not thinking anything!”   
“Yeah, right.”   
“Ok, since you’re not getting out of this until the kid wakes up, I’ll go and fix the mess you created by flying out of the meeting. I’m still mad I had to hear about it from FRIDAY.”   
“Yeah, that’s gonna bite me in the ass sometime, isn’t it”, Tony grumbled.   
“When you least expect it!” She kissed his forehead. “If you need anything, have the AI call me.”   
A few minutes later she sat in her office. She pulled up the security image and could feel her face light up at what looked pretty fatherly. We had a kid, and we named it after your crazy uncle, Morgan. He would make a great dad. Tony was scared to end up like his dad, but Pepper knew he wouldn’t. Only today he flew as Ironman to Peter’s school, because he got sick, and flew him back here in minutes; yelled at Stephen for 5 minutes straight for not fixing the Spiderchild as Tony saw fit and was not mad for being punched in the face.  
Now, Tony probably won’t want any witnesses to this cuddle session. It would be outright devious to call one of the Avengers down there, now would it? Tony already had a broken nose, that was enough of a punishment. Though one person should have the right to see this.   
“FRIDAY, please send a picture of the two to May.”   
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Everything around him was like a giant tornado: unintelligible sounds and undistinguishable shapes swirled around him, twisting him around. Every now and then he heard his name being called, but he couldn’t recognize the voices, didn’t know where they were coming from; above him, below him… All of this had one thing in common: danger. That’s all he could see, all he could sense, danger every-where.  
And suddenly it all seemed to stop. The eye of the storm. That’s where he saw him. That’s where Uncle Ben was waiting for him, with open arms.   
You’re safe. I’m here. Nothing will hurt you, I’ll make sure of that. I promise.   
He flung himself into Uncle Ben’s arms. He was safe here. Nothing could touch him. Nothing could hurt him.   
“I love you, Uncle Ben!” He did, with all his heart, with all the great memories but also the big regrets and nightmares; with everything that made their relationship so special, so dear to him.  
“I love you, too!”   
Peter hesitated a moment. This wasn’t Uncle Ben’s voice. It was someone else, someone he knew, someone important. But – although unidentified – not foreign, not dangerous or threatening; it was familiar and friendly and warm… Someone to trust, just as much as he trusted Uncle Ben. It was safe, Peter was safe, safe enough to finally rest.  
He was stirred by a snore, just above his head. He barely managed to open his eyes. There was an arm wrapped around him, holding him close; his head lying on someone’s chest, rising and falling with steady breaths. He himself was holding tightly onto… Tony? That smell of machine oil and cof-fee was without a doubt that of his mentor .  
He slowly tried to turn, pulling his hands from underneath Mr. Stark. Which was a mistake. Every-thing hurt like hell. “Uuunnggghh!”, Peter winced at the ache shooting up his side.   
That in turn woke Mr. Stark. “Hey kid, you’re finally up! How are you feeling?”   
Peter sunk again against Tony. “Like I got shot in the leg.”   
Tony laughed, his chest shaking. “At least you still got your sense of humor.”   
He played with Peter’s hair.   
“What are you doing?”   
“Pepper always does it when I’m not well. It calms me. I thought maybe…” He sounded almost apol-ogetic.   
“Is nice. Like Uncle Ben.” Peter felt Tony tense up, but he kept playing with his hair, softly rubbing his head anyway.  
“Maybe we should give Dr. Strange a call, to check up on you?”   
“Five more minutes.”  
Half an hour later, Tony called Strange, who portaled in only moments later.   
“Hey, kid, you’re up.”   
Groggily Peter sat up. He had to hold his head, everything was still spinning.   
“Hi, Dr Strange, thank you for stitching up my leg.”   
“Anytime.”   
The doctor took Peter’s head between his hands. “Ok, look me in the eyes. That’s it, great.”   
The examination went from his head, down his side and finally to his stitched-up leg.   
“I’ve got to say, I really envy your superhealing. The wound has already started closing up.”  
“Cool, can I get some of that mojo for my nose?”   
Confused, Peter turned around to look at Mr. Stark and DAMN! He had a huge plaster over a very swollen and very blue nose.   
“Oh my God, Mr. Stark, what happened to you?”   
“You don’t remember?”  
Peter racked his brain. “Remember what? I don’t know?”  
Dr. Strange cleared his throat before saying: “You did this.”   
“WHAT?” Oh no, no, no, he would never! “Mr. Stark, I have no idea… I’m so sorry, I would never hurt you! EVER! But… oh.”   
He remembered. Not much, but a little came back. “There was a dangerous bad man, I had to punch, to defend myself. No, Mr. Stark I wouldn’t…”   
He buried his head in his hands. “I’m sorry I hurt you.”   
Don’t cry, Peter, don’t start crying! Peter felt Tony’s hand on his back.   
“Kid, there is nothing to be sorry for, ok? You did what your gut told you to do. Maybe your spider-senses went a bit haywire, but that’s understandable, after having just been shot. I’m not mad that you hit me! I am mad though that you snuck out of the house, went patrolling, got yourself shot and didn’t tell me any of this. But we’ll discuss that, once you’re properly rested.”  
He couldn’t stop the tears from running down his face. “Ok, Mr. Stark.”   
Oh, why the fuck did he have to cry now?   
As if he could read Peter’s mind, Tony scooted closer. “Alright, you’re exhausted, you’ve been through a lot and everything’s just too overwhelming. How about we go to the Penthouse, get some food in you, and if you want you can sleep there tonight as well.”   
All Peter could do was nod his head.   
“Ok, great, can you stand?”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Thank you for dinner, Pepper!”   
“You’re very welcome, though you should thank Tony, he cooked it.”   
“Thank you, Mr. Stark.”   
The boy couldn’t even look at Tony. She exchanged a saying look with Tony.   
“Honey, how about you get the couch ready?” Tony nodded and left the kitchen.  
“Do you want to call May? Or should I speak with her?” Peter shook his head.   
“No, I’ll do it.”   
“Then I’ll give you a moment.”

“Hey May. I’m ok. Yes, really.”   
Pepper closed the door to the kitchen. “Don’t beat yourself up. He’ll be alright in the morning.”   
“I know”, Tony sighed, “it’s just… Ugh, today just was a bit much.”   
“I think an early night will do all of us some good.”   
A few minutes later, Peter joined them in the living room. Although he wasn’t all too sure on his feet, he was hardly limping.   
“May says hi.” He dropped on the couch.   
“Thanks.”  
They were quiet for a moment.   
“Alright, Peter. You need sleep and plenty of rest. So, no school tomorrow. No school!”, Pepper added emphatically, before Peter could resist.   
“Alright, no school.”   
“Now we’ll leave you be, you go sleep, and if anything is wrong, we’re just next door, ok?”   
“Thank you.”   
“Sleep well and see you tomorrow.”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
19.53 Tony Stark: Hi Ned, I’m sorry I’m only texting you now. Peter is alright. He’s resting up, and I’m sure he’ll message you tomorrow. Thanks again, Peter can really be lucky to have you as his friend! Have a good night.  
19.55 Ned: Hello Mr. Stark, thank you! Thanks for picking him up and fixing him again! He is also really lucky to have you!  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
19.54 Tony Stark: Hi MJ, I’m sorry I didn’t message you sooner. I just wanted to let you know that Peter is alright. A bit banged up, but in one piece. I’m sure he’ll message you tomorrow. Thanks again for calling, he’s lucky you’re his friend! Have a good night.  
19.57 MJ: Thank you Mr. Stark!


	5. Thursday

Groggily Peter opened his eyes. Where was he again? Right. Mr. Stark’s living room. Slowly yester-day’s events pieced themselves together. Oh shit. He punched Tony Stark in the face; he broke Ironman’s nose. It would probably be best if the ground opened up and just swallowed him whole. Peter sat up – definitively too fast. The room was spinning and his head felt like a nuclear powerplant, about to go critical.  
“Good morning, Peter. How are you feeling?”   
“Morn’ FRI. I’ll survive.”   
Peter went to the bathroom where he cautiously checked his injuries. His face had almost healed up; his side was still colorful though not as swollen anymore. And his leg… it wasn’t completely healed but it looked more like a cut by now than an actual bullet wound Huh. This super healing was not bad at all.  
“Hey, FRIDAY, what time is it?”   
“It is 11.48.” “WHAT? I slept for 14 hours?”   
“Yes.”   
“Why didn’t you wake me?”   
“I was under strict orders not to. If you are hungry, there is food for you in the kitchen.”   
Uhhhh…   
“Like Mr. Stark’s kitchen?”   
“Yes.”  
Peter was feeling a bit hungry. After all, he had barely eaten anything in the last 36 or so hours. But raid Mr. Stark’s kitchen? Without him or Pepper there? That just felt wrong. Maybe just a glass of water, he could help himself in the common kitchen downstairs. It was already awkward enough that he had slept up here, eating their food as well… that’d be just too much.  
As he opened the door, Peter couldn’t believe his eyes. There were breadrolls, jams, cereal, even waffles neatly arranged on the table, a note right next to it.

Hey Pete,  
I hope you slept well and are feeling better this morning.  
If you’re hungry, please help yourself. There’s milk in the fridge and you can warm the waffles up in the toaster oven.  
Pepper will be in the office all day. I am in the workshop, doing some genius-ing, if you want to join, you are absolutely welcome!  
If you’re not feeling too well, please let me know! Tell me what you need and how I can help, no mat-ter how big or small, I’d really like to help out any way I can! (And so would the others, though let’s be honest, we both know who the best Avenger is…)  
Now, enjoy your breakfast and I’ll see you later!  
Tony

Well, in that case… Peter couldn’t possibly refuse such a nice offer, now could he?  
While he happily dug in, he got his phone out, blinking with unread messages. Peter was in no mood to be sociable or anything like that, but he shouldn’t ignore his friends or May all that long.   
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
7.48 May: Good Morning, Petey. I hope you’re feeling better this morning. Just give me a short message when you’re up, just so I know you’re alright. Love you lots!  
11.51 Peter: Hi May, I’m not perfect but much better this morning. Talk tonight? Love you too!  
\----------------------------------------------------  
Yesterday  
17.13 Ned: NEVER EVER DO SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER AGAIN!!! YOU SCARED THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF US!!!  
17:15 MJ: Ned, you loser, chill. But yeah, no need to be so dramatic Parker  
17.16 Ned: Screw you, MJ.  
17.16 MJ: Whatever. Just, give a life sign or something, ok?  
17.17 Ned: Oh, btw, you’re the new topic of gossip all over school!  
17.18 MJ: Right! After Mr. Stark picked you up – in his Ironmansuit!!! – even Flash believes you’re his intern!  
17.19 Ned: THE LOOK ON HIS FACE!!!! So priceless!!! And we were kind of celebs today as well…  
17.20 MJ: ‘How does Tony Stark know your name?’ We hang…  
17.21 Ned: It was totally awesome!  
17.22 Ned: You know, apart from your whole… incident…  
17.22 MJ: Classy, man…  
17.23 Ned: Anyways, feel better soon!  
Today  
7.58 Ned: Hey, so how are you doing today? Mr. Stark told us you won’t come to school today. Probably best. Rest and stuff. We’ll get you your homework. Just check in when you’re up and you know, still alive or…  
11.55 Peter: Hey guys. I’m up, doing alright. Don’t get used to the fame, by next week we’ll all be back in Loser-ville…  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
About half an hour later, Peter put away the breakfast, feeling much better, now that he had some-thing in his stomach; thinking hard about what to do next. Under normal circumstances he would head straight to the lab to go work with Tony. But those weren’t exactly normal circumstances. After everything that happened yesterday… He couldn’t face Mr. Stark right now, he was way too embar-rassed. And he couldn’t deal with awkwardness right now.  
Peter could go downstairs, hang with the Avengers, maybe watch a movie with Loki or go for history time with Mr. Rogers and Bucky. But they all probably already knew about the nose-punching-incident… And that would be hilarious for them but a very terrifying prospect for him right now.  
He could go to his room, read, watch some Netflix or something… But being alone really felt wrong after yesterday and everything that had happened. Well, there was one more option…  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
A gentle knock on the door ripped Pepper away from her paperwork.   
“Peter, you’re up! How are you feeling?”   
“Hi Pepper. I’m alright. Not perfect but good enough.”   
“I’m glad to hear that.”   
The boy awkwardly shifted on his feet, leaning against the door.   
“You wanna come in? Take a seat!”   
“Ok.” He shuffled in, looking uneasy.   
Pepper walked over and sat next to him on the couch. “What’s wrong?”  
“Why does something have to be wrong? Maybe I want to check in on you!”   
She smiled. “That is absolutely sweet of you. Though I would have imagined you’d be spending time with Tony in the workshop.”  
Peter kept shifting on his seat.   
“Peter. What’s going on?”   
He sighed heavily. “I don’t think I can be down there right now, after… You know…”   
“Because you broke his nose?”, she finished his sentence.   
Peter didn’t look up, but softly nodded.   
“You know, Tony’s not mad at you, right?”  
“But why not? He should be so mad! I snuck out, lied to both of you – really sorry about that – and punched him in the face! Why is he not mad?”   
“Do you want Tony to be mad at you?”   
She wasn’t sure, she followed his train of thought. Clearly, Peter had never even remotely encoun-tered an angry Tony Stark, or he wouldn’t feel that way.   
“I don’t know.” He looked up at Pepper. “Normal people don’t keep you in their arms for an entire afternoon after you just punched them in their face!”   
Ok, that’s what he was getting at.   
“Peter, are you aware how important you are to Tony?”   
Peter shrugged. “I mean, he is my mentor. Would be weird if he didn’t like me.”   
“That’s not what I mean.”   
The boy stayed silent.  
“To quickly recap: In the two hours between Ned calling Tony and him falling asleep next to you on that bed, Tony flew out of a meeting to your school, right out the window, there and back in less than 15 minutes; he swore at Banner for being in Cambridge; yelled at Strange for not using the time stone on you; dealt with your distressed aunt, your passing out on the ceiling…” She left the rest unsaid.   
Silence.  
“I don’t remember most of yesterday. What I do remember is very vague and confusing. Mostly dan-ger. That’s why I lunged at Mr. Stark, punched him and tried to hide on the ceiling.”   
Keep him talking. He seemed to need someone to vent all this to, to get it of his chest, before he could face Tony.  
“What made you come back down?”   
“Uncle Ben. He showed up, he made me feel safe, told me he loved me…” The penny seemed to have dropped. Peter’s eyes were wide open, realization dawning on him. “That wasn’t Uncle Ben, was it?”   
Pepper tried to hide a smile. “I’m afraid not.”  
“Oh God! This keeps getting more and more awkward!” He buried his face in his hands.   
“It’s not going to get better in hiding.”   
“I know”, he groaned, before dropping his hands.  
“Maybe you should know that Tony feels really bad about what happened yesterday.”   
The look on Peter’s face was somewhere between confused and afraid. “About what exactly?”   
“He blames himself, actually both of us blame ourselves for letting you go to school.”   
“Oh no, no, no, Pepper, you don’t need to blame yourself! That was my decision and not yours!” He jumped up, kneeling on the couch, almost begging her to not feel bad.   
But of course she did. Tony didn’t decide Peter was fit for school by himself; she was there, too. Though she probably shouldn’t give the kid more reasons to have a bad conscience than necessary. She smiled at Peter, who instantly sunk back down, somewhat relieved.   
“You can be mad, but there’s no reason to feel bad.”   
“Well, you know Tony. He always carries the weight of the world on his shoulder.”   
“I should go talk to Mr. Stark, right?”   
She nodded. “I think that would be best.”   
Peter looked at her, still a little indecisive, what to do exactly.   
“Tell you what: You head down to the lab, build some clever tech with Tony; you tell him what you need him to know and vice versa; get through some nose-punching jokes from the other guys, and whenever there is something you need to get off your chest, I’m a pretty good Tony-whisperer by now. Alright?”   
Peter smiled. “Deal.”  
Before he walked out the door, he turned around once more, giving Pepper a big hug.   
“Thank you!”   
“Anytime, Peter!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Hi, Mr. Stark.”   
The voice at the door made Tony jump.   
“Oh sorry, sorry, I didn’t want to startle you!”  
“Peter! You know I have a heart condition!”   
“Sorry, Mr. Stark.”   
The kid looked like a kicked puppy. So much for making Peter feel better today. Great. Change the topic. Quickly! “Boy, it’s good to see you up and running. How are you feeling?”  
“Never better”, Peter answered with a purposefully forced smile.   
“Well, you definitively look it.”   
“How is your nose?”, he asked cautiously, glinting up at Tony.   
“Not too bad. Biggest issue is that until it heals, Thor is officially the best-looking Avenger. But hey, no matter how swollen or deformed my face, I’ll always be hotter than Steve.”   
Peter chuckled. “Ok, then I feel a little less sorry. Which I still am though.”   
“Alright, new rule”. Exasperated, Tony pointed at the kid. “No more apologies from you. Under-stood?”   
Peter nodded.   
“Good. Then get in here, I could use your help.”  
They worked together for a while, unusually quiet, not really sure how to get the conversation going. Yesterday’s incident and revelations hung heavy between them and Tony wasn’t even sure what they were. He knew there was something he needed to tell him, but he also didn’t know what that was ei-ther. One way or another, this had to stop.  
“Alright, Peter. I can’t take the silence anymore. As much as I hate to… talk… feelings… we need to get this out right now. You not looking at me is even worse than the silence. So…”  
Peter looked up, his cheeks all flushed. “Ok.”   
Looks like Tony had to take charge. He took a deep breath. “Ok. Mhm. Not quite sure how to start.”   
“Maybe I do. First of all, I have to violate our new rule. I am really sorry. For sneaking out. For pa-trolling without letting you or anyone know. For lying to you and Pepper. For your nose. I know I screwed up and I am really sorry.”   
Tony fell on one of the chairs. “Apology accepted.”   
Peter sat down as well, visibly relieved.  
“Can I ask you a question you don’t have to answer?”   
Peter nodded, albeit a little anxious.   
“What went through your head? When you were under, when your spidersense went all bonkers, when…” Tony took a deep breath before finishing his sentence, “when you called me Uncle Ben?”  
“Oh.” The flush on his cheeks intensified, and for a moment, it looked like Tony would not get an answer.  
“I don’t remember exactly what happened. It’s all a bit of a blur, like inside a kaleidoscope. I couldn’t really see any people around me, all I could make out were shapes; I heard voices, even some calling my name, but I didn’t recognize any of the voices. All I felt was fear, all around. My senses told me, there was danger everywhere and that I had to defend myself.”  
“Which you did rather successfully,”, Tony threw in.   
“Yeah.” Peter looked on the floor and was silent for a few moments, before he continued to speak. “Every time I was afraid and scared, Uncle Ben was there. Every time he was the one who made sure I was ok, who told me that I was safe and … loved…”  
The room was silent, except for the ticking of the clock. Peter hasn’t looked up, but Tony was sure, the boy was teary-eyed. And for good reason. Tony didn’t know how to react. He wanted to sit next to him, put his arm around Peter’s shoulder and tell him that he was going to make sure, Peter was safe, and protected… and loved. But he never would want to take away any of Ben’s importance.  
So he stayed quiet, to give Peter all the space he needed. Who was he kidding, he just had no idea what to say.  
After a while, Peter rubbed his eyes and sat back up. “Pepper told me what you did for me yesterday. Thank you.”   
Slight change of topic, alright then. “Anytime.”   
The kid chuckled. “According to Ned and MJ, it was the highlight of school.”   
Tony grinned back. “Not exactly what I flew over there for, but I’m glad it had such a nice side effect.”  
“At least now they’ll believe me that I’m your intern.”   
“Wait, they don’t?”   
Peter shook his head. “I apparently made it all up for attention, for being a lonely loser, whose Iron-man-obsession has gone too far.”   
Oh no, they didn’t. “First of all, the only person who can comment on your obsession with Ironman is me.”   
“Naturally.”   
“And secondly, you are the smartest kid in that school. You were the one who figured out the issue with Mark 31!”  
“Yeah, but they don’t know that. And they don’t have to”, Peter added with an urgent nod.   
He must have thought the same thing Tony was thinking. “Come on, I’ll take you to school tomorrow, or pick you up, and make a little presentation. It’ll be fun!”, he added with a grin.   
“No, it most definitively will not.”   
“I never get to do anything fun”, Tony pouted.   
“Yeah, well, I’ll have to go through vigorous questioning and explaining, why Ironman comes to safe me and all that. I do not need any more heat. For now.”   
“I can respect that.”  
They were back in sync. Thankfully.   
“Alright. I’m ready to get back to work. We should get on fixing your spidersuit, for some unknown reason there’s a bullet hole in it. Weird, huh?”   
Peter grinned back. “Honestly, I can’t explain it either. It’s a mystery!”   
“Yeah, I bet. Now, go and get it from where you left it. And wash up the blood!”, he yelled after him.  
They worked together all afternoon, joking, chatting away, time flying past.   
“Mr. Stark, this is your 6pm reminder.”   
“Ah, great. Thanks, FRIDAY.”   
“Reminder for what?”   
“Movie night! We thought you could do with a Star Wars marathon. Steve hasn’t seen them yet, so win-win.”   
“What are we waiting for?”   
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Bucky, don’t forget the popcorn!”   
“Yes, Ms. Romanoff!”, he called back from the kitchen.   
“I can’t believe, you’ve never seen Star Wars!” Peter burst through the door, yelling excitedly at Steve.   
“The kid’s right.” Tony walked in behind Peter, “have you been living under a rock? Sorry, ice?”   
“Nice bandage, tinman. And Pete: nice hook you got on there! You could give him some pointers”, Steve nodded at Tony.  
He looked around to find Peter, who already hung off the ceiling. “Seriously kid, you’ve got some freaky powers.”   
“Don’t listen to him, he’s just jealous.” Bucky walked in, balancing bowls of popcorn, chips and what-nots, on his arms.   
“You forgot the drinks!”, Natasha yelled from the couch she was spread out on.   
“Get them yourself!”, Bucky snickered back.   
“Where are the Asgardians? If we want to get through the original trilogy before bedtime, we should get started.”  
“Tony, I don’t know how old you think we are, but I haven’t had a bedtime, since I joined the army.”   
“And that was 80 years ago”, Steve added, while helping Bucky lay out the bowls.   
“Oh man, do you remember my mom, when we stayed up late?”   
Bucky snorted laughing. “Man, Hydra’s got nothing on her! Do you remember the time she made me sleep in her bed, to keep us away from each other and stop us from chatting?”   
Steve had to laugh as well. Reminiscing with Bucky was still one of his favorite pastimes. Made it feel like it wasn’t all gone.  
“I would have really liked to meet her.”   
“Can you imagine? Sarah Evans versus Natasha Romanoff. You know we love you Nat, but I wouldn’t exactly bet on you.”   
“Damn.” Peter lowered himself a little lower. “Seriously?”   
“Don’t worry, Pete. She would have absolutely adored you. Maybe as much as Steve.”   
“And definitely more than Bucky.”   
“Hey! I mean, he’s not wrong, but still.”   
Oh, he loved Bucky’s pouty face. “You know, I still love you.”   
“Awww!”  
About ten minutes later, the yellow font started rolling over the screen. Begrudgingly, Natasha had made room on the couch she was laying on, for Loki and Thor, who had shown up with three cases of softdrinks each, Bucky and Steve were snuggled up together, Tony reclined on the armchair, and Peter was on the ceiling, where he webbed himself a bowl of snacks next to him, hanging just above Thor’s head.   
“Do I need to worry about that bowl hitting me on the head?”   
“No, it takes hours to dissolve. I’ll reweb them before that happens!”  
In all honesty, Steve didn’t care too much for the storyline. It wasn’t a bad movie at all, but he couldn’t quite understand the hype around it. What was very entertaining though, was Peter, who knew the entire dialogue by heart, Loki and Nat annoying an increasingly exasperated Tony with the fantasy physics of lightsabers, and Thor, who for some reason can speak Wookie, and kept on cor-recting the movie. Apparently, the god of thunder needed the extra credits in college.   
“Stark, you said it’s a family movie! What family movie allows that kind of language?”   
“What do you mean?”   
“He just compared all women to nymphomaniac dogs, female one’s to be exact. And then continued a very detailed and graphic description of a sensuous encounter.”   
“Well put, Point Break.”   
“What? Why would they say something like that?” Peter seemed deeply perturbed.   
Thor looked up. “I’m sure, they weren’t aware of the meaning. Probably like the time, Banner tried to speak Groot, and ended up telling everyone to screw themselves.”   
Peter giggled. “Alright, then let’s find the most ridiculous sentence, Chewie says.”  
By the end of the first movie, their favorites were: “I like to lick eyeballs”, “Sunday is the day for chocolate pudding”, “When giraffes kiss, they turn blue”, and “on Tuesdays I wet my bed.”  
“Short pee break, before we start with the second one.”   
“Great, can you fill up my snackbowl in the meantime?” Peter lowered the bowl with a web.   
“Second helping? You’re officially healthy again, aren’t you?”   
“Not sure; I shouldn’t go to school tomorrow, though.”   
Tony let out a sigh. “You are not hiding from your fans, or rather, my fans!”   
Peter lowered himself to eye level, though still upside down. “Do I have to? It’s going to be so awk-ward!”   
“Tough beans.”   
“Tough beans?”, Natasha snorted with laughter. “Stark, maybe you need some input on modern lan-guage from these two fossils over there!”   
“Hey!”, Steve and Bucky yelled in unison.   
“But she has a point, that was lame even for WWII standards…”   
“Ha, ha, very funny. Stay out of this. Peter,” he pointed at the boy, “it’s not going to get better in hid-ing.”   
“You sound like Pepper.”   
“Well, she is the smartest person in this building.”  
The two stared at each other for a moment, everyone waiting for the other to make a move.   
“Guys, this is not a stand-off. Why don’t you want to go to school, Peter?”  
Peter swung around, looking at Steve. “Because everybody is gossiping about me being saved by Iron-man. And I don’t really need that kind of attention.”   
“Yeah, I get that. Though Tony is right, get it over with tomorrow, and then you got the weekend to let it all blow over.”  
Peter grabbed a bottle of coke and pulled himself back up. “I guess. FRIDAY, next movie please!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Finally!” With a loud sigh, May fell on the bed in her hotel room. After an excruciatingly long semi-nar about communicative processes, a communal dinner was – well, not mandatory – but expected. But now she was finally back in her room. Ok, first things first, calling Peter before doing anything else.   
She tried twice, a third time, but no answer. Oh, that was not a good sign. She tried Tony.   
“May, how are you?”   
“Tony, why doesn’t Peter answer his phone? What is going on? Did something happen?”   
She heard a chuckle. “Wait, I’ll send you a picture.”   
A few moments later, a picture popped up on her screen of Peter sleeping. “Why is it upside down? Wait… Is he…”   
“On the ceiling, yeah.”   
She joined in his laughter. “How did that happen?”   
“We were watching the original Star Wars trilogy, we thought that would get his spirits back up. And it did, the first was good fun, he webbed himself up there with some snacks, nothing too unusual. About halfway through the second, a bowl of chips landed on Thor’s head. Peter was fast asleep. We got the couches underneath him, you know, just in case.”   
“When I get back home, I’ll put an extra thick and fluffy carpet in his room.”   
“Probably a good idea.”  
“How is he? Except for physically impossible?”   
She heard Tony snort a laugh. “He’s alright. His leg is pretty much healed up, barely a scratch by now. All he really needed was some rest. He will be going back to school tomorrow as well. He doesn’t want to on account of being the number one topic of gossip, but he’ll just have to get through that.”   
That was a relief. “I’m glad to hear that.”   
“Seriously, thank you so much for looking after Peter. I’m sure it can’t be too easy, especially the last two days.”   
“It is no trouble at all. Well, no big trouble. But my nose will heal. That kid packs quite the punch, I tell you.”   
“I am really sorry.”   
“Don’t be. It’ll make for a great story.”   
“Alright then. I’ll try tomorrow morning before school.”   
“Good idea. Have a good night, and an interesting last day of seminars!”   
“Thank you. I’ll see you Saturday!”


	6. Friday

“Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!”   
“Uuuughhhh!” Peter glinted up. “Mister Stark, you’re upside down.”   
“Yeah, not so much.”   
Peter closed his eyes again. “Ceiling, best place to sleep another 5 minutes.”   
“Do I need to shoot you down? ‘cause I’ll do it.”   
Ouh, Peter did not doubt that. He slowly slid down on one of his webs eyes still closed, until he land-ed on the couches.  
“Your aunt already tried to call you twice this morning. Call her back, wash up and change and get some food in you. Happy will take you to school in about 45 minutes, and just a little heads up, you get to clean all this up.”   
Tony gestured around the room. Peter sat up to follow his pointing to chips and popcorn spread all across the floor.   
“That wasn’t me!”, Peter protested.   
“Tell that to the bump on Thor’s head.”   
Oh. “The snack bowl.”   
Tony nodded. “First call your aunt.”   
He threw Peter his phone and left Peter to his call.  
Before he could dial May’s contact, the phone lit up with her face on the screen.  
“Hi May!”   
“Well, look who’s finally up. Haven’t had enough sleep yesterday?”   
“I’m good, thanks for asking, how are you?”   
“No need to be snarky, young man. You know I can hear you rolling your eyes, right?”   
Of course she did.   
“How are you feeling?”   
“I’m alright. Really”, he added, before she could question it. “The leg is healed, my side’s still a little blueish and sore but it’s not so bad.”   
“Good.” She sounded relieved. “And apparently you can sleep on the ceiling.”   
“Mr. Stark told you?”   
“He sent me a picture. Your powers really never fail to amaze me.”   
“Yeah, I’m really glad I didn’t fall this time. Have gotten some bad bruises in the past.”   
“That happened before?”   
Damnit, he shouldn’t have said that. “Pretty much since the beginning. Since I can chill on the ceiling.”   
“That’s it, new and thicker carpet all over the apartment.”   
He had to laugh. “Guess that’s not the worst idea.”   
“Sounds like you’re ready for school again.”   
Peter had to squirm. He really didn’t want to face Flash and the rest of his classmates. “I have to.”   
“Yeah, Mr. Stark told me that you and Ironman made quite the impression.”   
He heard her laugh.   
“It’s not funny! It’s going to be so awkward!”   
“Peter. Is it going to be more awkward than fighting your homecoming date’s dad during homecom-ing?”   
“Maybe… Ok, probably not…”  
“You got MJ and Ned. They’ll help you through.”   
Yeah, they would. He really had the best friends.   
“Alright then, get ready and get going. You can do this, Spider-Man!”   
“Thanks, Aunt May. I love you!”   
“I love you, too!”  
“FRIDAY? Please get DUM-E to clean this up for me!”   
“He is on his way.”   
“Thanks!” Peter quickly go dressed and got his breakfast. Tony wasn’t seen anywhere, but there was a lunchbox on the table.  
Pete,  
I heard somewhere that packing a lunch is something you do for the kid in your care. Huh, who knew. Anyway, have a good day, see you this afternoon!  
Tony  
PS. I hope you like it!  
PPS. If not, don’t tell him. You know how he gets when his ego is bruised! Pepper  
PPPS. Ha, ha, very funny, Pep. We both know it will taste fantastic.

Peter giggled at the note, while spooning up his cereal. He heard a vacuum next door, DUM-E wasn’t that dumb after all.   
A few minutes later, Happy pocked his head in. “You ready to go?”   
“Let me just grab my bag upstairs.”   
“Meet me at the car.”   
“Be right there!”  
He was nervous like hell. He couldn’t sit still and was quite sure it annoyed Happy. “Sorry, I don’t want to bother you.”   
“I get you’re anxious. Tony made quite an entrance. And exit.”   
“Yeah. Ned and MJ were quite excited about it yesterday. But I guess they’ll dump all the heavy ex-plaining on me.”   
“That’s friendship for you. Rhodey went through so much shit to explain what Ironman got into. Don’t tell him I swore in front of you. He’ll blast me into next week.”   
Peter pretended to zip his lips.   
“Ok, kid. Good luck. You’ll do just fine. Friday is your short day, right?”   
Peter nodded. “I’ll be off at half past one.”   
“And I’ll be right here.”   
“Thanks, Happy!”  
As he walked to the school, he saw his friends standing by the entrance, grinning from ear to ear.   
“MJ, are you alright?”   
“Of course I am , why do you ask?”   
“Because you’re smiling.”   
It was weird, she never really showed any emotions. Unless when meeting the Avengers.   
“We’re just very excited to be part of the popular squad today.”   
“Yeah, I don’t really need that.”  
The trio headed for their class room. “Also, what’s with the bag packs?”   
“School supplies?”   
“First of all, Ned, you’re a horrible liar. Secondly, yours is never that full and you,” he pointed at MJ, “bring a bag with a pencil and a notebook. Maybe a highlighter, if it’s a lucky day.”   
“So, it’s a lucky day.”  
Peter shook his head. “Whatever.”   
He could feel the eyes of almost everyone on him. He tried to ignore it as well as he could. He almost made it to the classroom, when Flash planted himself right in front of him.   
“What the actual hell, Parker?”   
“Good Morning. How are you?”   
“Cut the bullshit. What the hell?”   
“You’re so eloquent. I’m impressed.” He and his friends pushed past him through the door and made for their usual table.   
“Seriously.” Flash followed them. “Ironman? He knows you? And MJ and Ned?”   
Peter looked up at him. “I told you, I’m Mr. Stark’s intern.”   
“Cut the crap. Ironman flies in, because his intern passes out?”   
“I’m his favorite intern”, he shot back with a grin, before turning his attention back to MJ and Ned.   
“Did you get some more work done with our project?”   
“Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of work getting done, after Mr. Stark dropped by.”   
Flash still stood in front of their table, his mouth gaping open, but Peter fully ignored him.   
“Oh man. Maybe we can work on it this afternoon?”   
The look his friends exchanged was quick, but he did notice it. “Yeah, today’s no good.”   
“Why? Since when has any of you plans that I am not a part of and that I don’t know anything about?”   
“Are you jealous?”   
“What? No, I don’t care, you just do whatever. Maybe I’ll just hang with Tony then.” He stressed the ‘Tony’ on purpose, and it seemed to have pushed Flash over the edge.  
He looked like he wanted to say something, but Peter could clearly see that he had no idea what it was. Eventually he just shook his head, turned around and went to his seat.   
“Good Morning! Ah, Peter, good to see you’re up and running again.”   
“Yes, good morning, Ms. Michaels.”   
“I have to say, you have rather impressive friends.”   
“Yeah, we’re the best!”, MJ and Ned yelled back in unison.   
“Alright then. Time for Shakespeare.”  
Peter was confused. Usually, lit class was the three of them discussing everything and anything, just not the works at hand. But today… Ned and MJ analyzed the text in great detail, not changing the topic once.   
“Ok, guys, this is freaking me out. What the hell is going on with you?”   
They tried to feign innocence, but Peter could look right through it. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”   
“Nothing.”   
“I have no idea what you mean. Now let’s go back to Hamlet.”   
“That’s exactly the issue!” Peter all but yelled.   
Ms. Michaels shot them a glance, less angry but more an approving look, apparently content, her stu-dents are so invested in the great literary works.  
Ned and MJ went back to work, ignoring Peter’s urging. Resigned, he gave up, for now at least.  
He had other things to worry about. Flash barely took his eyes of Peter, and every now and then he caught other classmates just staring. Even his teacher. He could feel the giant question marks in their eyes. Just ignore them. After all, it was not like any of them would figure out he was Spider-Man, right? RIGHT?   
Half an hour later, the bell ended the lesson, and they headed for history.   
“Let’s just get there quickly. No need for any questioning.” His friends nodded and tried the best to hide Peter between them. They headed straight for the back row.  
“Great. Are you now going to tell me what’s going on with you?”   
“Nothing to tell.”   
Peter rolled his eyes. “Alright, then I guess I’ll just… make up my own explanations. Let my imagina-tion run wild.”   
He winked at them and – that was almost like fear glinting up in Ned’s eyes.   
“Quiet. Open books, page 35.”   
“Ugh”, MJ groaned, “did her boyfriend dump her again?”   
Ms. Miller’s teaching was always heavily influenced by her private life. No matter what happened, all students felt the wrath of whoever or whatever pissed her off. There was no need to guess what hap-pened. As far as gossip was concerned, she was the absolute epitome.   
“You could set her up with Captain America! She loves history, he is a really good guy and maybe she wouldn’t be so damn unhappy all the time.”   
“Ned’s got a point. Have him come here or something!”   
Before Peter could interject, the two discussed more possible scenarios, their first date or how she might change.   
Finally, Peter got a word in. “Yeah, I’m not going to be the one breaking it to Bucky, though.”   
The shocked faces made him giggle. “You mean, Captain America? And the Winter Soldier?”   
Peter nodded, suppressing his laughter.   
“They’re… an item?”   
“Yup.”   
As quietly as he could, Peter added: “I don’t want her to be in my private life. And ‘Stucky’ is a really cute couple. I’m not going to break them up. Not for a history lesson.”   
“Fair enough.”   
“Stucky!”, Ned squealed. “That’s so adorable, considering you’re talking about two of the most want-ed war-criminals.”   
“FORMER war criminals.”   
“I couldn’t be more sorry.”  
The most extraordinary thing happened a few hours later, just as the bell rang to send them home. The three were just about to head out the door, when Flash stood in their way, again.   
“Seriously man, just let us go home!”   
“No.” Awkwardly he shifted in front of them. “Sorry, I didn’t believe you.”   
Peter’s mouth was gaping open.   
“Excuse me?”   
“You heard me. I’m not going to repeat myself. I should have believed, you are Mr. Stark’s intern.”   
“Uuh, thanks.”   
“Yeah. You’re still a dickwad, though.” With that he turned around.  
“What was that?”   
“I… I have no idea.”   
“Maybe he’s dying?”  
“Peter!” Happy leaned against the hood of his car. “Hello Michelle, Ned. Nice to see you again.”   
“You too, Mr. Hogan.”   
“It’s Happy. Anyways, Peter, get in. I’ll see you guys around.”   
“Ehm, did you just wink at them?”   
“What? No! Come on, kid, I don’t have all day.”   
His friends waved after them, with the fakest smile on their faces.   
“What is wrong with everyone today?”   
“What’s going on, Pete?”  
“It started this morning, when Mr. Stark packed me a lunch. Like, what’s that all about? Then MJ and Ned are super weird and have some secret plans they don’t tell me about, and then Flash apolo-gizes to me?! I am confusion.”   
“That is weird indeed.”   
“That’s all you have to say about it?” Happy just smiled and stayed quiet.   
“Perfect”, Peter mumbled.  
“So, who is this Flash kid, and why is an apology so weird?”   
Peter stayed quiet for a moment. Telling Happy about a bully could result in either a sympathetic “Hang in there, buddy”, or an all out Avengers initiative against Eugene.  
“I’ll tell you, if you promise not to tell Mr. Stark.”   
Happy looked at him through the rearview mirror. “That bad?”   
“Not at all, but… Mr. Stark has a tendency to overreact and this would be one of those instances.”   
“Oh yes, you’re right. Don’t worry, I won’t tell a soul.”   
“Thanks. He is just a bully, nothing to wild. Tends to call me Penis Parker and stuff like that. It’s nothing I can’t handle”, he added as he saw Happy’s distraught face.   
“Kid, bullys are not to be taken lightly. Are you sure there’s nothing we should do about it?”   
Peter shook his head. “All he does is call me names. And as long as he worries about me, other kids at school are safe. And I’m Spider-Man after all. If I can’t take it, then who can.”   
“That’s really noble of you, Peter.”   
“That’s what your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man is here for.”  
“Alright, then what did he apologize for?”   
“For making fun of me about my Stark internship, which I only made up for attention and because I’m such a nerd for Ironman.”   
“Well, you are quite the Ironman nerd. Don’t argue. I’ve seen your PJs.”   
Peter sunk back against the car seat. “Fine.”  
Happy was unusually talkative during the ride. Normally, it would be Peter doing all the talking, and Happy just nodding along. But today, he was asking questions, giving his opinion…  
“Happy? What’s going on?” He interrupted him just as he pulled into the Avengers driveway.   
“What do you mean?”   
“You’re… chatty.”   
“And that is a problem, because…?”   
“JUST BECAUSE! Why is everyone so weird today? Am I still unconscious? How hard did I hit my head? Are you all alien duplicates, trying to take over the world?”   
“Afraid not. Still only plain old Harold Hogan. Now, go on up there, and you’ll see that nothing’s wrong.”  
His spidersense wasn’t ringing, though something in his gut felt off.   
“FRIDAY? Everything alright?”   
“Yes, Peter, I am fine. How are you?”   
“Not what I meant.” Ugh. “Nevermind. Where is everyone?”   
“In the living room.”   
Maybe at least the Avengers weren’t all that cryptic today. 

“Surprise!”   
“What the fuck?”   
“Pete! Language! There are elderly people present!” Tony called.   
“What the hell are you guys doing here?”   
Ned and MJ sat on the couch, waving with big smiles. “It’s so nice to see you, too, Parker.”   
Helpless, Peter looked at Mr. Stark.   
“Surprise Sleepover Party.”   
“Wait. For reals?”   
Excitedly his friends nodded along with Mr. Stark. “Quick lunch, then we get to your project, you have a lot to catch up on, then blanketfort movienight.”   
“Really? Blanketfort?”   
“Trust me, mainly to keep you from the ceiling.”   
“This is soooo awesome! But wait: how did you guys get here before me?”   
Ned could barely keep down his excitement. “We flew here. Actually flew here! With the other Ironmans.”   
“Most awesome shit, ever!”   
“Do all your friends have such a potty mouth?”   
Peter turned around and glared at Tony. “You picked them up with the Iron Legion? You’re kidding me, right?”   
Tony just shook his head. “Nope. Had to get them here before you. Not to spoil the surprise, you know.”   
“Screw the surprise! You never let me fly around with the Legion!” Peter was a little bit hurt.   
“Ha, Loser! Something we did that you never got to do!” MJ grinned smugly, feeling visibly trium-phant.  
“Don’t be jealous, kid. I offered to pick you up today and you said no.”   
“Yeah, that’s because you wanted to make a big show.”   
Tony put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “We both know, if there’s one thing I can do, it’s making an entrance.”   
All of a sudden, lightning whooshed around them.   
“But not as good as me!”   
The portal closed, and Dr. Strange and Shuri stood in their middle.   
“Shuri!” Peter embraced his friend. “I can’t believe you’re here!”   
“Abuxeni! I was told some American loser needs help with his robotics project.”   
“And Mr. Stark flew you in for our school project?”   
“Technically, that was me. You’re welcome by the way. And, please remember, I am not your per-sonal chauffeur. I have an actual and important job. So, if you excuse me.” With a loud ‘whoosh’, Dr. Strange disappeared through a portal.  
“Guys, this is Shuri. Shuri, MJ, Ned. Shuri is like the smartest person alive.”   
“Hey!”   
“No offense Stark, but he is right.”   
“Yeah, right”, Mr. Stark grumbled, “just remember who gave you the suit, Spider-Man…”   
“And I will never forget it!”

After a short lunch, Peter, MJ, Ned, Shuri and Mr. Stark headed for the lab. It was the best after-noon. Peter realized that he had that thought a lot this week, well, except for when he was shot at and passed out and stuff…  
“This is the absolute best project ever. We need to put you two on the paper as well, imagine it: creat-ed by Michelle Jones, Ned Leeds, Peter Parker, Tony Stark and Princess Shuri of Wakanda.”   
“No bad idea. I imagine it would end the days of Penis Parker.”   
Peter shot MJ a warning look to shut up, but it was too late.   
“Excuse me, Penis Parker?”   
“It’s nothing, Mr. Stark.”   
“That didn’t sound like nothing.”  
“He’s just a bully, it’s no big deal.”   
“Yeah, it is.”   
Peter looked up. His friends were quiet, looking between Peter and his mentor. MJ mouthed a silent “sorry” to Peter.   
“No, it’s not. I can take it, he’s just calling me names. But at the end of the day I am an Avenger and have the privilege to slip into that red unitard. That sounded better in my head, but you know what I mean. So let him waste it all on me. Also, he is a big fan of Spider-Man, so he’s really just playing himself.”  
Tony sighed. “Peter, damnit, you’re too damn nice to be mad at you.”   
“I aim to please.”   
“Yeah, that’s exactly the issue.” He took a deep breath. “There’s no chance you’ll tell me their name, is there?”   
“Nope.”   
Tony looked at his friends. “If it ever gets bad, you tell me, alright? Because this monkey brain will not.”   
Ned and MJ nodded.   
“Stark, you have not told me that you adopted Peter.”   
“What?”   
“NO WAY!”   
“I didn’t…”   
“No, Shuri…” Not this again. Bad enough he called him Uncle Ben, and other stuff, and that he slept in Tony’s arms and so on…   
“You did pack him a lunch this morning, Mr. Stark.”   
“MJ!”   
Shuri started laughing. “Please tell me there was a little ‘have a great day’ note in there.”   
“No.”   
“You’re a terrible liar, Iron-Spider.”   
Peter didn’t dare to look at anyone, especially not Tony. He jumped up and stuck himself to the ceil-ing. “Until you stop this, I’m staying up here, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”   
“Not again! Peter, get down here now.”   
“Or what? You’ll ground him?”   
Tony looked defeated. “Listen, I will call T’challa and you’ll be right out of here, young lady.”  
Peter did stay on the ceiling for a while, walking through the lab, giving his input from above. And except for a small explosion that was definitively meant to happen, Mr. Stark, yes, it was planned this way, and besides, it’s not like anyone got hurt and there are barely any scorch marks, no need to be dramatic, the afternoon went by without any big mishaps.   
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“We’ve actually finished!”   
“Good. I’m starving.”   
“Why do you always have to think about food, Parker?”   
Peter raised his hands apologetically. “I am a teenage growing boy with a supermetabolism that never rests. You do the math.”   
“Alright, I’ll go and order pizza. You guys scrub up the scorched floor, and don’t even think about getting DUM-E to do your dirty work again! Yes, I know you didn’t clean up your mess upstairs. By the way, you still owe Thor an apology. And you know what? DUM-E too.”  
“What did you do to upset a god and a robot?”   
“It’s easier to show you.”   
“Mr. Stark, no, don’t show them the security footage!”, Peter pleaded.   
“Mr. Stark, yes, show us the footage!”   
Shuri was curious, to see what Peter got up to. It was probably super harmless, by now she knew Tony good enough to know he liked to dramatize everything. And the way Peter looked it was more embar-rassing than malicious.   
“First you tidy all this up.”   
“Yes sir!”  
A few moments later, Ned and MJ took care of their robot, Peter had left to get cleaning supplies and Shuri was collecting all screws and tools lying around.   
“Ok, I know he didn’t actually adopt Peter, but that is some dad-level shit.”   
“I know”, MJ answered, “you should have seen him Wednesday, when he picked Peter up from school.”   
“He stormed through the school, in the iron suit, looking ready to kill anyone in his way.”   
Shuri kept an eye on the door, this topic clearly made Peter uncomfortable, so it would be best not to discuss it in front of him. But while he was out…   
“He really packed him a lunch?”   
MJ nodded. “And I really believe that if we tell him about Flash, there’ll be a bloodbath.”  
“It’s just so funny, my brother met Tony at that Civil War thing, and he told me how emotionally stunted he was. No sign of this, at all anymore!”   
“Peter has that quality, to bring out the best in people.”  
“Ok, guys, are you done discussing me, or should I leave you be for another few minutes?”   
Damnit. “Sorry, Peter.”   
“Yeah, whatever.”   
If it weren’t for all the expensive tech around, the cleanup would have probably ended in a sponge battle. And although all four of them were dripping wet, the lab was eventually clean.   
“Mr. Stark is calling. Dinner is here.”   
The teens looked at each other. “Yeah, we can’t go up, looking like this.”   
“Where are your sleepover bags?”   
“In your room.”   
“Mine too.”   
“FRI, please tell Mr. Stark, we’re just going to wash up and change into something… clean… without any machine oil on it.”   
“Yes, Peter.”  
As stealthily as they could, the four sneaked upstairs into Peter’s room. It wasn’t a big deal for Peter, who was used to being sneaky. Shuri herself had been training with the Dora Milaje and her brother, she wasn’t doing so bad herself. MJ and Ned on the other hand… They fulfilled every slapstick-comedy-trope. It was hilarious. Peter went up front. He knew his way around, knew where the camer-as where and how to bypass them. Shuri stayed in the back, helping the other two how to best sneak about.   
When they finally reached Peter’s room, Shuri couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. “Guys, what the hell was that? Peter, you should really train your friends better.”   
Peter poked his head out from the bathroom. “They already have a date with Nat.”  
They quickly got changed and were in the dining room only a few minutes later.   
“Shuri! I didn’t know you were coming!” Bucky swept her up and embraced her tight.   
“Kunjhani?”   
“Ni kona.”   
“IKhale hinga vonani.”  
“Show off”, Tony snorted walking past Bucky.   
“He lived in Wakanda while he was healing”, Peter explained.   
“So when Shuri comes round, we feel only a little left out and not at all jealous.”   
“Oh, Steve! Ndza ku rhandza.”   
Oh how sweet! “Steve, now say ‘U sasekile’. Or call him murhandziwa!”   
”Ndzi tele hi wena, Shuri.”   
“Just, write it down for me? And what it means as well. Not that I don’t trust you, but before I sell my soul or anything…”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
It was much later than she hoped, but finally Pepper had finished all her work for today. Not quite all off it, but at least everything that needed to be done no later than today.   
In the kitchen, there was still some pizza left. She was really grateful, with all the superhuman metab-olisms in this building, she wouldn’t bet her life on leftovers.   
She grabbed two pieces and made for the living room. Which was no more recognizable as such. Blankets were hung all over the room, glued to the wall and furniture with Peter’s spider webs. Clear-ly a bunch of very smart engineers designed this beauty, from outside it looked like it was big and sta-ble enough to even rent out.   
“Hello?”, she called out, “anyone home?”   
“Hi Pepper!”, she heard Peter’s excited voice, “the entrance is back here!”   
A few moments later she crawled through the opening – thankfully she changed out of her pencil skirt, that would not have been easy.   
“Wow.” It looked just as huge from the inside than it did from out there. Cushions and snacks were spread out over the floor. Except for the four teenagers, Loki, Bucky, Steve, Natasha and Tony were in there. She scooted over to her fiancé, leaning against him.  
“I’m impressed. You did an amazing job.”   
“Thank you, Ms. Potts.”   
“Guys, you can call everyone here by their first names, you know that, right?”   
“Yes, Peter, you can call EVERYONE by their first name.” Tony shot a look at Peter.   
“I know, Mr. Stark.” The kid smiled back.   
“I swear… Just promise me, one day, you’ll call me Tony? Please. Mr. Stark makes me feel so old.”   
“But you are…”   
“DON’T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!”   
Pepper started giggling.   
“You too, Ms. Potts. I’m only the fourth oldest in here.”   
“Fifth oldest.” Thor’s voice echoed through as he popped his head in. “I believe age-wise none of you tiny mortals manage to even get close to me. Or my brother.”  
“It’s really weird, we’re just casually hanging out with gods, mutated people and what do we do? We build a blanket fort.”   
“Are you complaining, MJ?”   
“Never! I’m considering putting it on my resumé!”   
“Stark, I heard the adoption process is moving forward?”   
“Adoption?” Pepper looked at Tony with questioning eyes.   
Tony sighed loudly. “I’m not adopting Peter.”   
Oh. That. Peter hid his face behind a cushion. She didn’t have to get a closer look to know that his face was bright red.   
“You know what? Whoever wants to adopt me is very welcome, just know you’ll have to face off against May.” Triumphantly Peter looked around the room.   
Ned started giggling. “I really would like to see that.”   
MJ chimed in: “In this corner: May Parker, small and slender, facing off against Ironman himself, Mr. Tony Stark, who will be dearly missed.”   
Now the rest started laughing as well.   
“I have never met her, but I already like your aunt, Peter.”   
“Sorry Shuri, but I can’t have you meet her, or you’ll be her new favorite.”   
“Yes, but see, that would give Tony the opening to officially take you in.”   
“We’re never getting out of this, are we?”   
“I fear not. So, Pepper”, Tony turned to her, “turns out, marrying me would come with some extras…”   
She smiled. “If I am being fully honest, I sort of suspected something like this, when I first said yes. Though be warned. If we were ever to divorce, you can bet your metal ass I’m going to fight for full custody.”   
“Oh no, you wouldn’t dare.”   
“Try me.”   
His eyes lit up. “Oh, it’s on. PETE! You would stay with me, right?”  
The poor boy looked like someone shot a puppy right in front of him.   
“Honey, there’s no pressure.” Of course there was, but Pepper thought the domestic approach the better one.   
“Please. Who designed your various suits? Who discovered you? Who made you an Avenger?”   
“Which doesn’t mean, you owe him anything, you know that, right?”   
“How about you guys just don’t separate?”   
“Or how about you get married first? You’ll have the rest of your lives to discuss that.”   
Tony shook his head. “No, important things like the Spiderchild need to be in a pre-nup.”   
“Oh my god.” Peter sunk into the cushions piled up around him, Ned patted his back.   
“How about you first square up with May?”   
“Or how about you just don’t.” Peter’s voice was dampened by the pillow, but it almost sounded like it was cracking.   
The grown-ups exchanged quick looks, the others seemed to have heard it too. There was a lot more there to unpack, but tonight was not the night.  
“Hey, can we continue the Star Wars movies?”, Steve changed the subject, “we stopped halfway through the second one, last thing we saw was Han and Leia hiding in that Asteroid field, before Pe-ter’s chips hit Thor.”   
“Wena! How do you dare hurt the most powerful Avenger?”   
“Second.”   
“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that… By the way, how’s the nose?”   
“Seriously man, you gotta stop sleeping on the ceiling!” Ned shook his head.   
“Wait, you’ve seen that before?”   
He nodded his head. “Yeah, in D.C. Was pretty funny, when you fell off, though!”   
“Please tell me, you filmed that?”   
“Sorry.”  
“Ok, how about we stop discussing how I hurt others and myself and get to Star Wars?”   
“And Thor: please keep ruining the movie, it is hilarious!”   
“Thor speaks Wookie. It is the absolute best”, Peter explained.   
Even in the dark fort, Pepper could see Thor beam with pride. It was incredible: that kid could make an actual god blush.  
The tv screen was actually build into the fort. Everyone scooted over, so they could see the screen.   
“No, Peter, you cannot stick to the fort roof. Remember, it’s only blankets.”   
“Yes, Mr. Stark.”   
It was hilarious. The teenagers divided the main roles among themselves and spoke along with their respective roles. Peter was Luke Skywalker, Ned was Han Solo, since she was a princess, Shuri took the part of Leia. MJ wasn’t too keen on any of the roles, every now and then she lent R2D2 and C3PO her voice. And Thor as Chewbacca – now that was a sentence, she never thought she’d say – was incredibly funny.  
So was Tony as Yoda. Even in fictional worlds, he mentored Peter. A thought she kept to herself but was surely not the only one to think so. At least he didn’t go with Vader, now that would have been awkward. Instead Loki transformed himself into him, dramatically stretching his hand out to Peter.   
“I am your father.”   
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
Tony had left the fort quite a while ago, leaving the teens to… whatever kids these days got up to. Pepper, exhausted from a long day of work, went straight to bed, leaving him to himself. That was never good. Maybe an early night might do him good as well. Though that wasn’t something, he was good at. After rolling over countless times, he decided for some hot chocolate, that sounded like a good idea.  
“Huh, great minds think alike.” Peter stood by the stove, heating up what smelled like milk.   
“Make sure there’s enough for me, too!”   
“Of course.”   
“So, where’s the rest of your gang?”   
“Dozed off. But I guess I’ve slept too much the last two days, I’m not that tired. Hot choc usually helps.”   
“Yeah, me too. Ok, you take care of the milk and I’ll go get the mini-marshmallows.”   
“I thought, we were out?”   
“Please, Peter. Obviously I have a secret stash; after all I need to prepare for certain supermetabo-lized spiderpeople…”   
“Wait, so you bought them for me, or to hide from me?”   
“Whatever makes you feel better, buddy.”  
Shortly afterwards they sat together, each of them with a huge cup of hot chocolate, topped with plen-ty of marshmallows, whipped cream and sprinkles.  
“Man, I’ll have to start taking work-outs more seriously…”  
”I can recommend swinging through the town.”   
“Yeah, I bet a supermetabolism doesn’t hurt either.”   
Peter grinned. “It does not!”  
“Thank you for today, Mr. Stark. It is so awesome to have everyone here.”   
“Well, then just you wait until tomorrow!”   
“Why, what’s tomorrow?”   
Tony took a big sip from his cup, leaving Peter hanging in suspense for a moment. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”   
“Oh, come on, that’s not fair!”, Peter complained.   
“Stop your moping, I’m just messing. We’re having a welcome-back-party for May. If you think she’d like that.” Questioning he looked at Peter.   
“Like, with everyone?”  
“It is a possibility. But I also know, she just had a week of non-stop stress and people around, so I understand if you think it wouldn’t be the best idea.”   
Peter stayed quiet for a moment before answering. “I think, it’d be nice to just have a quiet dinner at our place, with you and Pepper. And Happy too, if he wants to. Maybe MJ and Ned, but I think that that’s enough.”   
“Sounds like a nice idea. What do you say, we get there, prepare a lovely dinner, Happy will go pick up May and when they get home, we’ll surprise her.”   
“Sounds great!”  
In the end, they decided on making Tony’s famous Chicken piccata – Pepper swears on it! – and mousse au chocolat – is there anything better? – and that Ned and MJ should be there too – they’re family anyways.  
About one hour and two hot chocolates later, Peter started to look tired.   
“I could do with my bed as well”, Tony said, after Peter started yawning.   
“Not a bad idea.”   
“But before you shuffle off to that blanket monstrosity, I need to apologize.”   
“For what?”  
Tony took a deep breath. “For being so pushy with all those adoption jokes. I’m sorry I upset you.”   
“Oh. Yeah. Ok.”   
“We do not need to get into that, I just wanted to say it.”  
“Yeah, I think we do.”   
Oh man.   
“At least I do, because those jokes won’t stop coming, so I need you to understand what is bothering me.” Determined the boy looked up. “It’s bothering me, because I don’t want to lose you.”  
Tony couldn’t follow. “Kid, I don’t want to lose you either, but what does it have to do with… all that?”   
“Because I can’t lose anymore parental figures.” Peter’s voice wasn’t cracking but it wasn’t steady ei-ther. “I’ve managed to lose three of four parents total. I don’t want to give the universe any more to kill off.”  
Silence hung heavy between them.   
“Is that why you don’t call me Tony; to keep that last bit of distance?”   
Silently, Peter nodded. Oh, everything made so much more sense now.   
Peter stood up, looking ready to get out of there. “I just wanted you to know. Good night, Mr. Stark.”  
“Kid?”   
The kid turned around.   
“Thank you for telling me. Means a lot, your trust that is.” Tony headed for the door and put his hand on Peter’s shoulder. “Whatever our relationship, whatever you are comfortable with, just know how important you are to me. Oh, and one more thing”, Tony added as he walked out the door, “no need to worry, not even Thanos managed to kill me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I wrote this before Endgame, so I have to admit, that last line didn't age very well... Sorry about that, you guys....


	7. Saturday

“You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen!“  
“What the hell?“ The teens shot up from underneath their blanket and pillow piles.  
“Good Morning!“  
“Loki, what the actual fuck, man?“  
“Language! Stark tasked me to wake you guys up. I personally think that I have done a marvellous job.“   
Loki grinned and looked around the fort. The kids were somewhere between shocked (Ned), an-noyed (Peter) and straight up psycho-angry (MJ and Shuri). Apologetically, Loki raised his hands. “Take all the time you need to wake up. I cannot promise you that there will be any pancakes left though…“  
As expected, this worked like a charm. The kids rushed passed him, towards the kitchen. Loki fol-lowed, already looking forward to their reaction, and they did not disappoint.   
“What do you want, I am the god of mischief!” he said to their angry faced; four kids, who’s sleepy bed hair would be absolutely adorable, if it wasn’t for the poisonous looks they shot at him.  
“Wena!”, Shuri took a step forward, pointing at him, “I trusted you!”  
“Brother! What have you done to these poor children?” Of course, Thor, that goody two shoes; no sense of humour. “I truly hope you plan on making good on this heinous deed.”  
“Heinous deed? Are you kidding me? Stark told me to get them out of bed, and that I did.”  
Shaking his head, Thor turned to the teens. “I will personally make sure, my brother will fulfil his promise. Loki, get the milk and eggs, I shall fetch the flour.”  
“Oh goody, playing chef with my big brother!”  
“It’s awesome, we will get breakfast prepared by two gods!”, Ned exclaimed.   
“Don’t get excited just yet”, Peter whispered, albeit not quiet enough.  
“Excuse me?” With a whisk in his hand, Loki turned around. “What is that supposed to mean? Is our cooking not good enough for your delicate palate? And before you answer – remember that I’ve seen you eating a hotdog of the street.”  
“It’s just”, Peter fumbled with his fingers, looking nervous – for good reason. “Remember Sam’s birthday cake you made? Yeah, I spend the next day over the toilet bowl.”  
Loki could feel his chin dropping. “But.. but you said you liked it!” Thor looked just as shocked.  
“I did! Right until I almost threw up in Happy’s car.”  
“Oh my… I can’t… I don’t… You lied to us?” Loki wasn’t disappointed, not really anyways. He and Thor had only slaved all day in the kitchen for the birdman’s birthday cake, because the Spiderling said, every birthday needs a cake.  
“I’m sorry, I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.”  
“It is alright, Man of Spiders. Though I am truly sorry that our cake made you sick.”   
Peter smiled at Thor. “You don’t have to be. And I bet, your pancakes will be delicious!”

And they were. Now, Loki wasn’t one to toot his own horn… who was he kidding, he’s the greatest being that ever lived; Martha Stewart, who?  
“Thank you so much for breakfast! I think it’s only fair for us to do the clean-up.”  
“I couldn’t agree more!” Demonstratively, Loki put his feet up on the table, almost breaking two cups and a plate. Ah, well…  
“Thank you, that is a kind offer.” Thor sat down, smiling widely at MJ, who looked like she could faint from excitement.  
Typical. For some reasons, everybody swooned at his brothers sight. If they only knew the man be-hind the hammer… Uh, great title for the next big uncovering novel! Tell the Midgardians who the true swoon-worthy Odinson was. If they knew Thor like he did…  
First of all, he was so easily stabbable. That he hasn’t been killed yet…  
How little Thor cared for his hair – when it was still long. Not once he used conditioner! Cutting it was really the only way it could have been styled…  
“Earth to Loki, are you still with us?”  
“What? Yes, I was just lost in thought.”  
“We wanted to say thank you again. For breakfast.” Ned smiled at him. Huh, maybe there was some hope left for humanity.  
“You are most welcome. Now scuttle off to where ever.”  
Wow, he was fantastic with children. No surprises there, he was fantastic at everything! But back to the matter at hand: how to best expose his big brother?  
\-----------------------  
They were in the middle of taking down the blankets, Peter undoing the webs from the ceiling, the three of them collecting everything he dropped, when they heard them being called.  
“Shuri?”  
“Brother, we are in here!”  
Oh, what the hell… King T’challa walked in. The Black Panther. Ned heard himself gasping.  
“Abuxeni!” He walked towards them, two women behind him. They must be the Dora Milaje, Shuri told him about the fiercest warriors in the world.   
“Hello sister, Peter. And you must be Ned and Michelle. I am T’challa. It is a pleasure to meet you.”  
T’Challa. King of Wakanda, the actual black Panther knew his name. “Uhm, hi, your majesty.” Should he be bowing? They hadn’t bowed to Shuri, but he was king… Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Peter shaking his head.  
“Ned, we are not that formal. Please just call me by my name.” All Ned could do was just to nod. “I hope you had a great evening.”  
“Yebo, we did” Shuri grinned. “I hope to do it again soon!”  
“Unfortunately, I have to take you away now. We need to be in London for teatime.”  
“Ugh, do I have to be there? I am tired of explaining tech to Prince Charles.”  
“Mother’s orders.”  
“Fine, I’ll get my stuff.”

20 minutes later they saw them off, flying away in their.. plane? Ned wasn’t exactly sure if it wasn’t actually one or maybe rather a space ship. They walked back across the tarmac. Right, there was a freaking tarmac! This avenger-week was getting weirder and weirder. And Ned loved every second. And it wasn’t even over yet! During breakfast, Peter had told them what he and Mr. Stark had dis-cussed last night. After lunch they will be heading to the shops to get everything for dinner and then cook a nice meal at Peter’s place. So plenty of time for more shenanigans.

And it really was. MJ, Peter and Ned went shopping with Mr. Stark and the looks they got were price-less.  
“Mr. Stark, would you like to make the frontpages tomorrow?” Peter grinned diabolically.  
“I am not pushing you around in the shopping cart.”  
“Close, but not what I had in mind.”  
It took him a moment, but the penny dropped. “No. Just, no.”  
“Come on, Mr. Stark, it would be hilarious!” MJ and Ned chimed in.  
Peter looked ready for the kill. “If you do it, I’ll call you Tony.”  
Mr. Stark’s face dropped. “That’s blackmail.”   
“I am aware.”  
Oh wow. His best friend was the only person in the whole world who could make Tony Stark speech-less, and Ned was immensely proud.  
\-------------------------------  
Tony stared into the grinning face. He had to admit it he was considering it; it would be really fun. No, Tony was the adult, supposed to be the responsible one. But damn, those puppy eyes…  
“No, you will not push me around in that cart, and that’s final. Besides, there’ll be enough media outcry just from me going shopping with three random kids.” With that he pushed the cart into the store.  
“Hey, we’re not random!”

“So, what do we need?”, Tony asked, when the teens caught up with him.  
“What do you mean, ‘what do we need?’ I though, you were the master chef?”  
“I so am! It’s just… I haven’t done my own shopping in a while…”, Tony admitted.  
“Mr. Stark, as long as you pay, it really doesn’t matter.” MJ grinned cheekily.  
“Is that all I am to you, a big, walking, incredibly handsome wallet? Besides, I was under the impres-sion of being invited to the Parker household.”  
“You are”, Peter nodded, “though being invited in and paying for groceries are two very different things.”  
Tony could only shake his head. If he was being honest, Tony wasn’t much help except for having a wallet. He just pushed the cart through the store and yelled various ingredients at the kids, who ran off, disappeared in the different aisles, appearing again with arms full of food.  
Since he didn’t have to do anything Tony could enjoy all the gawking shoppers, all the whispers and pointing. And, because he wasn’t there alone, no one dared to ask for a picture. Everytime someone looked like they just wanted to come up to him, Peter ran in with the chocolate, or MJ brought chick-en, or Ned asked how many tomatoes they needed.  
He was looking forward to the tabloid headlines. Letting the kids push him around in the shopping cart… That would just be too much. Pepper wouldn’t probably be too amused…  
Tony pretended not to notice, how the cart filled with things definitively not on his list: chips and Nu-tella, Coke and comic books. The teens tried to stealthily smuggle everything in, hiding it behind the veggies and under the meat. It was all topped though by the teens stolen glances and sneaky smirks, thinking Tony didn’t notice. Obviously, he would have gotten them those things if they asked, but the added comedy factor was worth it. Until Peter got energy drinks.  
“Alright, Peter, I really enjoy your little smuggling game and I do not mind at all, but no energy drink for you.” Peter looked at him with big eyes, looking to protest. “No, don’t argue. Remember last time?”   
The boy looked to the floor, “Alright.” Ned and MJ looked out from behind him, a bit ashamed themselves, but definitively curious. “What happened?”  
“I may have gotten a bit excited, climbed up the Empire State Building and I may have reenacted King Kong…”  
“Don’t leave out the best part! He swung around a bit too hastily and wrapped himself in his own webs and got stuck up there. I had to come save you at 3am!”  
MJ and Ned started laughing, Peter giggled as well after a moment. “Yeah, I’m not going to do that all that soon again.”  
“Hopefully. Again, remember, heart condition. Anyways, I think we have everything we need. Now is the point where you need my credit card.”  
The teens packed everything away. As Tony waited for his card to be processed, he smiled widely at the cashier who looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t know what exactly that was. Tony decided to have his fun with that. “Yes, cooking with the kids, always a lovely thing to do.” The wom-an looked shocked, he could clearly see the question in her eyes. Tony Stark has children? And from the looks of it, from three different mothers? Well, that wouldn’t be the biggest surprise… It would be a very good headline though, and very interesting explaining it to Pepper.  
“Really? My teen does not like cooking at all.” Sarah, he read on her nametag, tried to sound relaxed, like she was having a normal everyday talk with a regular customer. Tony played along.  
“It’s less the cooking, more the clean-up that is a challenge. Bit messy, those three.”   
From the corner of his eyes he could see the kids exchanging glances. “We’re not messy.”  
“Right, I’ll remind you of that later, when you come up with all the reasons you can’t do the dishes.” He turned to Sarah. “Teenagers, gotta love them. Thank you very much and have a nice day!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Newark Airport. Local time 4.38pm, 59° Fahrenheit. I hope you had a pleasant flight and on behalf of this team I would like to thank you for flying with us.”  
Finally. Not that Chicago-NYC was such a long flight, but being squeezed between a fighting couple for 3 hours was not fun. She had offered to swap seats with one of them, but “No, I cannot sit next to him right now.”  
“Mary-Anne, come on, let us talk about this!”  
“There is nothing to talk about! I introduce you to my parents, and you thank me like THIS?”  
“You never told me, you had an identical twin!”  
Wow. This was better than her daily soap, or at least it would be, if she wasn’t trapped in the middle.  
“You’re right, the huge tattoo all over her shoulder and back was no clue at all.”  
It went on like this for the entire flight. At least she got a complimentary coffee from the stewardess, looking at her pitifully, sneaking a small bottle of Bailey’s into her hand. Gratefully, May spiked her coffee, nodding a silent thank you to the stewardess.   
“You looked like you needed it”, the woman, Nancy according to her name tag, whispered to her as she got off the plane.  
“Thanks. You’re an angel!”

As she walked out the electric doors into the arrivals hall, first thing she saw was a poster: “Welcome Back, May!” Holding it was Happy, smiling and waving at her.   
“Harold, thank you so much for picking me up!”   
She looked around and was just a bit disappointed not to see her nephew standing there. “I’m sorry, it’s just me, but Tony let me know that they are running late and are heading directly to the apartment and meet us there.” That was not surprising at all.  
Happy took her bags. “Do you want to get going?”  
“Oh no, Gerald, just shut the fuck up! Just… I’m going home by myself, and I don’t give a fuck where you sleep tonight!” “Mary-Anne, please, darling!!”  
“Oh god, please, get me out of here, Harold!” If she never heard the names Mary-Anne and Gerald, it would be too soon.  
“I don’t want to know, do I?” May just shook her head.

Fifteen minutes later, Happy was caught up on Mary-Anne and Gerald’s failed engagement, the bare minimum at least.   
“Oh, you poor woman. Should we stop for a drink on the way home?”   
“Maybe not right now. I just want to get home and take like fifteen showers…” Happy laughed. Huh, she never really noticed that when he smiled his eyes crinkled up. Very adorable.  
“Alright, fill me in: what happened the last few days?”  
“You have a great nephew, that’s for certain.” She grinned. “Yeah, I know!”  
“I mean it.” Happy kept on talking and talking, telling May all the stories from the weekend: of the ping-pong-turned-fight-club, MJ and Ned dazzling the Avengers, blanket forts and Star Wars.  
“Pepper sent me a picture of Tony and Peter cuddling, after he got hurt, truly adorable.”   
“EXCUSE ME?” Happy all but slammed on the brakes. “They did what?”  
Shocked from the sudden stop, May looked at him with big eyes for a moment.  
“Sorry about that, you alright?”   
She nodded. “I take it that is not common knowledge.”   
“It is not”, Happy answered, speeding up again, ignoring the people flipping him off for that ma-noeuvre.  
“I don’t know the full story, but Pepper told me that Peter stuck unto Tony and didn’t let go, so they cuddled.” She got her phone out and held up the picture.  
“Oh goodness, this is precious”, Harold laughed.   
“Tony’ll never hear the end of it, will he?”   
Happy shook his head. “No, he won’t. Any chance, I could get a copy of that picture?”  
She grinned over at him. “What’s in it for me?”  
“I could take you to dinner?” He smiled over at her, keeping one eye on the road. “If I’m not being to forward.”  
She was taken aback a moment. “You, know”, she answered after a few moments of silence, “that would be lovely.”   
“I agree.”  
They sat in silence for a moment. Out off the corner of her eye, she saw him smiling, and caught her-self grinning like a schoolgirl, who’s been asked to her first dance. 

“Alright, welcome back home.”   
“How on earth did you find a parking spot right in front of the house?”   
“I’m just that good.” He winked at her before jumping out the car. Before she knew what was going on, he had opened her car door. “M’lady.”  
“Thank you very much.” Such a gentleman. He really was different to how Peter perceived him. Nat-urally, he was a teenager who probably got on the busy man’s nerves. She loved her boy, but he was sometimes too chatty for his own good.  
“Let me get your bag.”   
“Thanks Harold, that is very kind of you.”   
“Please, anything for you, May.”   
“What the hell is going on?”  
“Petey!” Her nephew stood in the door, looking perplexed between the two of them.   
She ignored the awkwardness and hugged him tightly. “I’ve missed you so much, Petey!”   
“I missed you, too!” His arms were wrapped tightly around her torso, and he buried his head in her neck.   
“Wow, that much? I think I should go out of town more often…”   
“No, I won’t let you.”  
“Let me just get these up.” Happy pushed past them with May’s bags in her arms. May felt like she had to struggle more though, what, with Peter wrapped around her.   
“Sweety, please, a little help here.”   
“But I’m so glad you’re back!”   
“Yeah, me too, but it’s not helping anyone if we fall down the stairs.”  
Somehow they still managed to get up in one piece. But she almost fell back down, when she was greeted by a giant “WELCOME!” – banner, and the wide grinning faces of Tony, Pepper, MJ and Ned.   
“Surprise!”, Peter yelled in her ear, just as he let go of her.   
“What is going on here?”   
“Well, we thought we surprise you with a nice dinner. So, we’ll be having pizza.”  
“Pizza?”, Harold looked puzzled. “Didn’t you want to…”   
“Noooo!!! We had no other plan, whatsoever, pizza was always the plan!” Babbling, Peter jumped in front of Happy.  
“Alright, no need for a dramatic scene. On a different topic, do I smell smoke?”  
“Ehm, no?”   
Pepper giggled. “Glass of wine?”   
“Thank you Pepper, I’d love one.”   
Pepper gave her a glass of red, hooked her arm under May’s and walked with her to the couch. “I think we can let the kids and men handle this. Also I think it’s best to keep you out of the kitchen until they cleaned it all up.”   
“Pepper, you’re scaring me.”   
“Just remember, the guys in there have saved the world a few times, I’m sure they can handle a kitch-en. Now, tell me about Chicago!”  
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.  
“What the hell happened in here?”   
“Keep your voice down! I don’t want May to freak.”  
Happy was right though. The kitchen was a mess: burnt pans and pots stood around, the stove was covered in tomato sauce, the smell of scorched food hung heavy in the air. At least it wasn’t smoking anymore.  
Tony had a fun afternoon, but he really underestimated these kid’s power of distraction. Though they weren’t really to blame any more than he was.   
They had a chain for the chicken: MJ cut the meat, Ned dunked it in the egg-milk mix and Peter breaded the whole thing. Tony sat in the corner, barking out instructions. While the chicken was fry-ing, they cut up tomatoes for the sauce, of which Tony was in charge. And next thing he knew, the kitchen turned into a battlefield.  
He just left his eyes away from the pot for a moment to long, and everything boiled over. While fran-tically trying to save the sauce no one thought of the chicken, which burned into the pan, filling the entire flat with smoke.   
Of course that was the exact moment, Pepper arrived at the flat, because obviously all this needed witnesses.  
Unfortunately, the food could not be saved. So they agreed on pizza, which Pepper ordered, while the others got to cleaning. 

“So, remember when you told the cashier earlier today that you’re not messy?” Exasperated, Tony pointed around the room.   
“What?”  
“Yeah, that -“, MJ pointed around, “- was not us.”  
“Hate to say it Mr. Stark, but it’s on you”, Peter added. “Though we do not mind helping at all.”  
When the doorbell rang, the pan and pot stood around, soaking, the stove was scrubbed clean and so were the floor and the walls.  
“Alright, not too bad, like it never happened!”  
“Except for the smell. And I think the curtains could do with a wash…” Ned pointed to the window, the light blue curtains covered in red spots.  
“Damn, that sauce exploded really spectacularly!”  
“Everything I do is spectacular”, Tony explained. “Now you guys get the plates and I’ll get the pizza.”

Everybody dug in hungrily.  
“Can I just say, this is really lovely. Thank you very much for all this. After a long week of very boring seminars and the worst flight I have ever had, it is really wonderful to have a nice, calm dinner with you. If I’m already giving my speech, I need to thank all of you for what you did for Peter, it couldn’t have been easy.”  
“Excuse me?” Offended Peter looked up at his aunt. “I am a delight to have around!”  
“Yes, my nose definitively agrees”, Tony snickered.  
The others giggled and Peter, slightly flushed looked at his hands.  
“As I was saying, thank you, for taking care of him, keeping him safe and everything. I really appreci-ate it.”  
“Yeah, me too. Was a pretty cool week.” Peter smiled around the room, his gaze remained on Tony a little longer than the rest. He understood, the two of them went through some weird stuff, emotional stuff, over the last few days.   
“May, I think I speak for all of us when I say that the pleasure was ours. You’re quite the kid, Peter and I for one had a great week.”  
“Thank you, Pepper.” Shyly, Peter smiled up at her. “Me too.”  
“I have to agree, you did a good job raising him.”   
“Well, thank you, Harold.”   
Happy grinned at May, who… blushed? Oh, Tony did not see this coming… Happy and May? Under the table he felt Pepper squeeze his hand, and he realized he was staring. He looked over at his fian-cée, who stifled a smile.   
The moment wasn’t lost on the kids either, Peter’s mouth was gaping open, MJ and Ned just grinned. Helpless the kid looked at Tony, who could just shrug.  
May and Happy seemed to feel how everyone stared at them. “What?” Now they seemed to be blushing for a different reason. Best change the topic. And then Happy did.  
“May, you might find, there is some competition in the ‘raising-Peter-game’.” Oh no.  
“What do you mean?” Tony tried to signal Happy to shut it, but he didn’t catch it. Peter shifted un-comfortably in his seat. Damnit.  
“Nothing, he means absolutely nothing. That’s just some dumb joke from the last few days, but that’s all, just a joke”, Tony explained, before Happy could continue his story, looking at him urgently. Now he seemed to get it.  
May looked confused around, first at Happy, then at him, before her eyes rested on Peter.   
“You don’t need to worry about anything”, Peter said softly, “no one is ever going to replace you, or Ben.” He avoided Tony’s gaze, but everything that needed to be said was said. May put her arms around him and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. Tony couldn’t help but smile at the scene.  
“It was the joke that Tony was going to adopt me.” Oh, alright, he’s on board now? Maybe that short moment between them was sort of an understanding that it was nothing more than a joke.  
“Are you trying to take my kid away?” With played anger May glared at him. “How dare you, Sir!”  
The room broke out in giggles. “Although, I have to admit, after hearing what happened this week, it does not surprise me all that much.”  
A little afraid, Peter looked up at him. “Why, what have you heard?” Tony got a little nervous him-self.  
“It’s probably easiest to show”, Happy answered instead, with a devious grin on his face that Tony didn’t like at all.  
“No, Harold, I will not show them the picture.”  
“What picture?” The suspense in the room was tangible. “May, what picture?”  
“Not the one I sent you?”, Pepper asked. May just nodded.  
“What picture did you send her, Pep?”  
“I may have sent her a screenshot of Wednesday’s security footage.”  
Wednesday… Oh. He and the kid looked at each other for a moment. “We’ll allow it”, Tony finally agreed.  
“Alright.” May got her phone out and opened the picture. It was of the med bay, Peter wrapped tight-ly around Tony’s body, his head resting on his chest. Tony had one arm over Peter, holding him close, and his other hand in Peter’s hair.  
“Oh shit, this is so cute!”  
“And I thought the lunch thing was adorable…”  
“The lunch thing?”, May asked.  
“Mr. Stark packed Peter a lunch yesterday”, MJ explained, “even with a little note in it.”  
“Damn, I really do have competition!”

The evening was good fun. Laughter and funny stories of the compound, school and Chicago let the time fly by, it was already dark, when Happy checked his watch. “Oh, MJ, Ned, I need to get you home, I promised you parents that you’d be home half an hour ago.”  
“Guys, first of all you’re going to rock that presentation next week. If you do put mine and Shuri’s name on there, let me know, we can make a guest appearance.”  
“Will do!”, Ned squealed happily.  
“Thank you for the help. It was really fun.”  
Tony ruffled Ned’s hair and Pepper gave MJ a hug. “I hope to see you two soon again.”  
“Come on, I’ll walk you down.” Peter grabbed his friends by the hands and the three headed through the door.   
“Thanks Hap.”   
“No biggie, boss. Enjoy the rest of the evening, I will see you tomorrow.”  
“Let me walk you out, Harold.”

Tony watched May and Happy talking by the door. “I can’t believe that. I never thought of… that.”  
“It does make sense.” Pepper leaned against his shoulder. “Peter doesn’t look too amused about it, though.”  
“I believe, most teenage boys aren’t too interested in feelings. Especially when they involve parents.”  
She looked at him dubiously. “Not interested in feelings? Have you seen the way he and MJ look at each other, when they think the other isn’t looking?”  
“No. You’re kidding, right?”  
Pepper just chuckled. “Wow, and you call yourself a playboy.”  
“Former playboy. I’m a good boy now. Every mother-in-law’s dream. And that all thanks to you.” He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her in for a kiss.   
“I am pretty formidable, aren’t I?”  
“The absolute best.”

Tony and Pepper didn’t stay much longer themselves. After all, May had a long week behind her, and was probably very ready for bed.  
“Thank you so much for this lovely evening.” Tony helped Pepper into her coat.  
“I need to thank you! I didn’t really contribute anything, after all it was all your idea and planning.”  
The two women embraced. “Thank you, for everything. I really am so grateful for everything and even gladder that Peter has the two of you in his life.”  
Tony couldn’t help but smile. After all, he was the lucky one. “Trust me, our lives are so much better for it.”   
Peter smiled shyly. “Yeah, mine too.” The kid walked up with them. “Let me walk you out.”

“Are you coming over next week?”  
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I’ve had enough of the Avengers for a while…” Peter smirked, leaning against the door frame.  
Pepper just laughed. “Yeah, well, I think the Avengers will never have enough of Peter Parker.” She gave him a hug. “Have a good night and enjoy tomorrow with May. It was absolutely wonderful to have you over.”  
“Thank you, Pepper. It really was!”  
She let go and looked up at Tony. “Let me give you two a moment.” She smiled at Peter and got into the car.

“Thank you. For everything.”   
“You’re absolutely welcome. Had a great week. Though next time I might just wear a football helmet, or maybe a hockey mask. After all my face is my best feature.”  
Peter buried his head in his hands. “I’m never gonna hear the end of it, will I?”  
“Probably not.” Tony laughed. “Anyways, I should get going. You and May have a lot of catching up to do. And don’t forget to go to bed.”  
“I won’t.”  
They stood in silence for a moment, before Peter moved.  
He hugged Tony tightly, held close. After a moment’s hesitation, Tony put his arms around Peter, pulled him even closer. Peter’s hair tickled his chin and he softly stroked the boy’s head.   
“Thank you”, Peter whispered in Tony’s ear and hesitated a moment before adding a quiet “Uncle Tony.” With that the boy let go and ran back into the house.  
Uuuuuuuh… Slowly Tony got into the car and dropped behind the wheel.  
“Tony?” Slowly he turned his head to his fiancée. “Tony, what happened?”  
He felt his eyes getting wet and he answered with a wide smile. “He called me Uncle Tony!”  
\----------------------------  
What did I just do? Oh what the hell did I just do?  
Peter ran up the stairs and right into May’s arms.  
“I missed you, too, Petey!”, she laughed.  
A shower later, he and his aunt sat on the couch together, wrapped in blankets, each a hot chocolate in their hand.  
“What are you thinking about?” May looked down at him, her hands playing with his hair.  
“I’m just thinking about family.”   
What he had said to Tony… It was an impulse thing he said, and as much as he meant it, he regret-ted it the moment he said it. Not because of Tony, but because of Ben. He can’t just replace him or betray him like that!  
“I called him… Uncle Tony.”  
May pulled him close and Peter put his head in her lap. He felt tears rolling down his cheek and May started to stroke his head.  
“I think about Ben a lot as well. For a long time, I was afraid that I was going to replace him, or even forget him. But I could never do that; no one can ever take his place. But that doesn’t mean that we have to be scared of letting people get close.   
Did I ever tell you about when Rhonda from upstairs tried to set me up with her cousin? Five minutes into the date I bailed and when I got home, I cried myself to sleep, I felt like I betrayed Ben, I felt guilty for imagining myself being in a relationship again, for moving on.  
It took me a while to truly understand the phrase ‘moving on’. People like to give you all sort of ad-vice, like ‘he would want you to be happy’ and so on, but it doesn’t take away your feelings of guilt. Because whoever you meet, where ever you go, you will always carry that person with you.  
I can’t tell you, what’s the right thing to do, you need to find that out yourself. All I can do, is tell you that I am always here for you, and you never have to justify yourself to me.   
I don’t know, what your and Tony’s relationship is, and in a way, it is none of my business. But what I do know is that Tony can never replace Ben and I also know that he doesn’t want to; in the same way, Ben never replaced your dad. Instead he became a new, different part of your life, fulfilled a differ-ent role, not less but also not more important.”  
Peter looked up at her. “Ok.”  
She leaned over and put a kiss on his forehead. “I think it’s time for bed.”  
“Alright”, Peter yawned. He hadn’t even realized how tired he was. “It’s good to have you back home.”  
“Yeah, you too, Love. Now, brush your teeth and off to bed you pop.”  
“You too. Sleep well!”

22.58 Tony Stark: Hope you’ll sleep well back at home. And I guess I just wanted to say how much what you said to me earlier means to me. I also want you to know that I do not want to take anything away from you and Uncle Ben, I do not want to replace him in any way. But I care about you, a lot.  
22.59 Tony Stark: So I guess what I’m trying to say is, that you are part of my family and you will always be.  
22.59 Tony Stark: And if you feel more comfortable calling me Mr. Stark, that is fine.  
23.00 Tony Stark: You are also always welcome to talk to me about anything, if you want to. Just know, I’m here for you.  
23.01 Tony Stark: Sorry, I have been working on what to say for an hour now, I just wanted to find the right words, not sure if I did though.  
23.02 Tony Stark: Anyways, sleep well and maybe I’ll see you next week?!  
23.05 Peter: Hi Tony  
23.05 Peter: Don’t worry, you put it well.  
23.06 Peter: You’re really important to me, too. And it’s great to have you and Pepper be part of our family  
23.07 Peter: Good night, Uncle Tony   
23.08 Tony Stark: Love you too, kiddo


End file.
